This post is awesome and full of great links. I share your sentiments about this platform and see it as a new idea that can change the way we do social media.
When I read what you wrote here;
Simply put, Steemians have incentive to approve witnesses who aren't selfish, the incentive being, they, those who approve witnesses could receive votes for their posts from those who they approved as witnesses.
Thus the most widely supported witnesses won't be selfish and the Steemians and posts which will be the most mutually empowering should always eventually rise at the top and get the most attention and rewards.
Most of the time, empowering others is the most empowering thing we can do.
It rings so true that empowering others on Steemit is a great route to take here and anything that empowers and concentrates the community is a good idea. You know, that is why I started Steemit Open Mic.
By empowering others we benefit as well and there is no better place to do that than on the Steemit platform.