Regarding flagging - fortunately it'll be an order of magnitude harder to abuse with Hardfork 19. For example, today, a whale's flag needs 10,000 minnows or 100 dolphins to counter. After Hardfork 19, just 10 dolphins or 100 minnows could counter a whale flag. At this point, it is no longer a flaw.
Yeah I look forward to seeing that in action. :) Linear curve makes a lot more sense. I can't believe it is n^2 that is just crazy.