The current situation is that developers, for example, are expected to dedicate significant amounts of their lives to creating solutions for Steem with no guarantee of remuneration for their efforts
This is life. Sorry. But it’s the nature of reality itself. Who owes you a guarantee?
As for many of the other points about top-down power, what kind of platform did you think this was when you got into. It is, has been, and hopefully always will be, a stake-weighted voting platform. Those most invested have the most say. No one is forced to be here.
no-one owes me a guarantee and no-one owes steemit any exciting projects that enhance it's value. ;)
i find it odd that fair exchange is valued in wider society, but not here.
I am not suggesting that stake weighted voting be nullfied. Can you see the interesting interaction between the two quotes here? Stake weighted voting can be dominated (and IS being dominated) so that one party literally gets to decide (via delegation) what is best for all. That person is not me.
The other aspect to consider is that 'Stake' is not just about money - stake is also time and effort, which are typically considered above money in the hierarchy of value used in capitalism. By not respecting time and effort, the productivity drops and ROI drops too.