  The mischievous linear coalescence approach to hadronization of quark matter
is shown to violate strangeness conservation in strong interactions. The
simplest correct quark counting is shown to coincide with the non-linear
algebraic coalescence rehadronization model, ALCOR. The non-linearity of the
ALCOR model is shown to cancel from its simple predictions for the relative
yields of (multi-)strange baryons. We prove, model independently, that quark
degrees of freedom are liberated before hadron formation in 158 AGeV central Pb
+ Pb collisions at CERN SPS.
