HIVE stake needs to be distributed well enough to make this work. The original design had a good idea to do this: the free-roll posting rewards paid half out in stake. In combination with the original two year power down schedule, this was a good idea. But since that wasn't compatible with the investor class of user, it was changed to the compromise we have today. But both liquidity and stake distribution goals can be accomplished with a system that doesn't compromise stake distribution.
If free roll stake earned from the reward pool were put into a separate balance, going forward from the hardfork that implements it, that balance could be on a different power down schedule. Invested/legacy HP would be summed with earned for all influence purposes. The only difference is how long it takes to power down. Setting that to the original two year schedule or something less sticky like one year would allow stake to remain in the hands of people on the ground, posting and engaging with Hive. It's easy to see how massive the effect would be on distribution, and how rewards could be much more naturally distributed towards what really brings value to the platform.
I agree. That is why I am a fan of not lowering the power downtime but instead adding a instant power down + 10% fee attached in which the fee goes back to the stakers. With this in place, we could move the power downtime from 3 months to 2 years. This system will guarantee a high rate of return in Hive simply because when people need to cash out, they will hit the instant way, thus leaving more and more fees to be given to those remaining powered up. Basically, people who power down all their rewards now will be the ones instantly powering down their rewards under a IPD system—so finding a way, in theory, to appease the short-term speculators while rewarding long-term holders.
I know I will hear with IPD because it makes it easier for people to get out and thus not keep people sticking to the platform. But I would argue these people would PD 100% under the new system anyway. People who are not PD now, I don't see PD instantly for a 10% hit because if they needed the $$ that bad, they'd be powering down already.