Thanks for sharing your experience. Your comment has earned you 43 cents (I know it's not that much but hopefully when the markets turn round that 1 STEEM you now earned will be worth $5).
If Steem inc started to vote with their stake it will 'dilute' the reward pool a bit for everyone. But if value is being added and that STEEM end up in good hands I think it would be accepted.
The suggestion to use other applications to manage the voting is cool. The whole voting process can be outsources to reduce costs and still get them what they need. A couple of oracles to keep things in check could be handy too. (just throwing stuff out there).