It seems obvious to me that the current reward system could never reward mass adoption under its current setup. Hence terms like reward pool rape when people are using their own stake to vote. Instead of rehashing what I said elsewhere, here is a link to my comment on another post discussing consolidation of stake at the top (whales) while the lower tiers are actually leaving.
https://hive.blog/hive-167922/@practicalthought/qecnd5
You're correct something would have to change. And waiting for those killer dapps to come and skyrocket the chain has indicated in the current model isn't really happening, for whatever reason. And adding second layer shitcoins isn't the answer either as I mentioned in my comment link above.