as someone trying to community build, everything you said here has played in my head a few times over. i actually read this post the other day, but had no time to leave a reply so came back today.
"The problem at the moment is that there isn't a significant amount of community thinker SP among active users and what there is, is helping the community grow and stay engaged while the assholes are building castles and empires. Unless we have castles of our own and people willing and able to support them, we are screwed in the long-term. I am sensitive to people's immediate needs but, there is a much bigger game being played and many more lives in the future that will potentially be helped."
All the SP is behind developers and Apps from what I can see. I understand the need to support these, but as a business operation, its only one department. I hope other 'departments' will be able to grow SP accounts via witnessing, but for that to happen SP holders must be willing to vote for these witnesses.