We can't rely on people's long term outlook. In theory, it makes sense, but in practice, it just does not work that way. We can scream until we're blue in the face for whales to think long term instead of for short term profits, but that's just life and why many are not wealthy in this world.
I say fix the parameters, we saw it with free downvotes. People argue whales should DV regardless if it's free, well sure in theory, but what happened in practice proves my point. We added free DV's and downvotes went up drastically and destroyed bid bots overnight basically.
If we remove the need to vote at 4 mins to maximize rewards you will see whales voting differently.
I am sure each person has their own thought on what is good for Hive or just for themselves. We've been in this thing for four years now and some have not taken a big profit yet. My Steem was worth almost 100k for a moment, but of course I could not power down quickly. I have spent some at various times on guitars and going to Steemfest. I think we have a good mix of investors, innovators and people who just enjoy being part of this experiment. That's why I don't think you can generalise about what people want.
People want money. Don't fool yourself.
Many people want money, that's true, but it is not the only motivation we have. Generalisations are usually wrong. Don't fool yourself.