That probably will encourage a lot more curating activity, however, in my opinion, they will be whales setting up bots to maximize their returns
It'll be both. The thing is that whales already set up these bots or sell votes or delegate for pay. It makes sense to do on a whale scale even with smaller rewards. What doesn't currently make sense (as evidenced by the relative lack of people doing it) is humans spending time on careful curation.
Increasing the curation reward split might have a small effect on increasing incentives for bots, but it would have a large effect on incentives for real, careful curation. So the relative shift is in favor of the latter.
Whales/investors should be more concerned with the long term increase in Steem's value
That's good wishful thinking but you can't really change how people think or act just by making statements about what other people 'should' do. What we can do is change the rules of the system such that it encourages better behavior. This post is an attempt to propose some such changes.
Yes, you are right. It is easy for people like me make statements. I am glad this conversation is happening. I am excited of possibility of something positive coming out this. Hey, Steem price is rising already :)