A good comparison!
I would love to read some open research. Unfortunately there are no scientific blockchain designers in the steem-ecosystem (I´m aware of, maybe there are?). I mean I wish them the best luck with trying things out but the big guys @ bitcoin and ethereum, cosmos, ... work with mathematical proofs. On steem it was like "hey look at us we have lots of SP hence our opinion is "right"..." , I mean they maintained the code and stuff which is great but there was no opensource-evidence based discussion going on.
They just need to prove collusion resistance with a game-theoretical model...
I mean dPOS is a consensus mechanism, the voting mechanism is not the consensus mechanism. Mathematically both are two distinct modules interacting. Like PoS is not a consensus mechanism. Proof-of-Stake schemes (like Proof-of-Work) are oracles, they don´t output consensus.
DPoS did well for Bitshares, so STEEM was built on a proven protocol, but it just doesn't suit well a for social blockchain. @blocktrades programed the current REP as a "bandaid".
An evolution of the protocol would be better option, but as you say, requires some research. Also the way STEEM has operated for 4 years, has generated some data as well, regarding human behavior. Some of that, should help as well.