Good post, it's the most interesting one arguing for EIP that I've read so far. As before, we'll have to agree to disagree, no need to beat the dead horse as we've discussed the matter enough. :) You can see my comment linked above for why I think bidbotting and self-voting will not see a major change. That said, I'll just say this - Games have moderators, designers, judiciaries and referees. In addition to changing the rules in a very timely manner, pay-to-win games work because abusers are banned en masse. Similarly, social networks have teams of thousands dedicated to finding abuse, banning miscreants and implementing countermeasures. Till this fundamental problem is solved, Steem will always be abused and exploited. Thing is, these problems have been solved too, as stated above. So are we going to ignore historical solutions that are backed by overwhelming evidence? In favour of mere guesswork? I get it - these solutions will take time to implement; in the meantime we can try some quick fixes and see how it goes, which is why I'm still on the fence. But we have to start thinking about the big picture.
Some things can easily be simulated (especially now that I've seen the Snax team run simulations); while others are more complex and require deeper psychological, econometric and anthropologic research. Of course, it'll be a combination of both in the end. I'm not expecting complex neural networks just yet, by the way, but as a civilisation, us humans have a rich recorded history to derive knowledge and statistics from. I mean, even from Steem itself, you can study a lot e.g. the downvoting relationships. As you may know, in the early years of Steem, I have written a lot in the past paralleling Steem to political models, historical societies, play-to-win games, evolutionary models, even universal systems! And of course, other social networks. I was mistaken because I thought Steem has a chance of being a new paradigm, so some of the previous learnings may not apply. Yet, through every single parallel I drew, Steem has very predictably been boiled down to everything I said it has a chance of not being. Steem is a society / network of humans like any other, and all of the same predictable rules apply. Anyway, there's no research, no audits, no evidence of any sort published regarding the matter. Currently, the proposals are just guesswork, and it's simply not good enough when a swath of major changes are proposed. I hope there'll be a testnet, at least, before the implementation is frozen and the hardfork is proposed. Sorry for the haphazard rant, I'll end it here!