you get my upvote because you are raising a debate and seem to be open to discussion and objections. As this is a proposal it should be treated as one and I think peoples answers will give you the feedback you ask for. This altogether should be welcome from all who are interested.
For me this steemit cosmos is like real life starting a community from scratch in the Wild West. Democracy is not easy to take. It has aspects of regulation as well as aspects of freedom. Those are very sensitive and always on the brink of becoming out of balance.
What happens here in my view is that people struggle for regulation as much as for freedom. Exactly as in real daily life only on a greater scheme. Here it boils down and in particular the ugliness as well as the beauty can be seen.
This is the great search politicians and economic members and all the rest are having great difficulties with. Once a system is too much restrictive it fails and if it is unleashed, it fails, too.
What to do? I have no idea other than that ethics have to be put in perspective as the ground base of human action and interaction - we already have guidelines and people were telling us for thousands of years. Technical solutions alone will never bring a system to a flourishing life in the meaning of cooperation. Technical solutions have to go hand in hand with manual observation and enough freedom.
In the end no one will be truly freed from doing handy work. I myself have thought of auto-voting for those I prefer to read. I cannot have a daily overview of the people I would like to support. It is in the human core that you want to be loyal to the ones you got to know first und who treated you well. So you vote them even though the content was not very qualifiying itself.
I guess you actually know where your weakness lies as well where you can gain strength. To go outside and check your concept I call good.
I must admit that I feel backed away when I hear those big numbers like 20+ Million. I never feel attracted to them.
My position is easy. I have nothing to lose. My "minnowness" makes me quite uninteresting and if this whole thing would blow up I wouldn't care that much. Even though I put hell lot of effort in here.
It is a very personal decision - If I have a lot to lose then I would probably care much - about money, of course. So when does one reach the point where he or she doesn't care about money as well? I do not want to see a "fast grow" - but I do not know if it is a relatively single opinion here.
Last words: When I see a system fails for ethical behavior is only wanted from others but not my very first own priority in every interaction, I think it would be time for me to move on and not bothering anyone with my "opinion".