Yes, the active user base here in terms of people creating content (commenting and posting) is just about 10k if I'm not mistaken so getting rid of the rewards pool isn't sensible unless there is another way to incentivize people.
Even when L2 tokens can be used to reward people, the question would be, what then becomes of HIVE? It is a controversial subject and even Rondon said it is not something to be taken lightly. I'm quite sure that this idea won't go far because as some people pointed out, it will have a negative impact in the governance of the blockchain.