I'm going to be publishing a post soon (when I think more about it) in similar vein to everything you've said here - particularly about the distribution going to a larger number of users.
In particular, I also want to focus on content - not content about the platform, or that feeling you get when you've had an enormously satisfying meal.
I tire of seeing posts consistently rewarded most when they're about the platform, or a service on the platform, or part of the eco system. Yes, this stuff is important as an advertisement of what people do to keep the place running, but I'm fairly sure I wouldn't enjoy reddit if the only content on reddit was about how many posts each community got, how many lines of code got written into its database, etc.
I'm fairly sure that sort of stuff would make me leave, as a content creator and also as a content consumer. This is why I like your posts and ramblings - they're about the nature of life, and not just the current craze of "look at me, ma, no steemit inc!"
What I wonder is what percentage of the reward pool goes to platform posts, and what goes to other content. The reason is, platform content is something that ties us all together, so it kind of makes sense it gets rewarded, as we are all interested in it in some way. I suspect though that while some users and posts get highly rewarded for that content, most of the value of the pool goes to other types and is spread much wider.
I do know what you mean though and it annoys me that I exacerbate the problem as that is where my interests lay. I do try to connect it to all of the other areas I am interested in too though as I see that Steem and now Hive is a good way to reflect upon life. :)
With the system we have here, the only solution seems to be that larger accounts want to change this and vote less for friends who tend to go trending. I suppose there is something that can be done to the algorithm but changes to the algorithm always seem to lead to people at the top making more money. This is not to say the people at the top are bad people. I think it's a really easy trap to fall into and it can be a little scary to stop supporting other whales who can make or break you. It's also easy to feel like you are doing good by the community when upvoting 30% to smaller users, but then a majority still goes to large accounts which ads to wealth inequality. Also people just get busy with things and it's easier to vote for names you know or autovote. I am sure I will struggle with it to when I am in that position. I can already see myself struggling with it to some extent.
In the end I think a change of culture is the answer and that will lead to better behavior and better algorithms so I try to work on that because it's what I can work on now