This is a problem, but ultimately, not a very long standing one. Creative people were once on youtube, and there will always be more creative people to fill the gap. Even if you disenfranchise 10,000 of the best on steemit, there are millions to replace them in the future.
At the end of the day, those that stay with it will succeed if they aren't blinded by the hate of whales. Simultaneously, no one should be quitting their day job for something that is still working out the kinks. No one worth their own salt will quit their creative endeavours because of steem whales. If you did, you lost the fight before you even began.
I will say though, that disagreement on rewards is a healthy thing, but it might be abused in negative ways that need to be dealt with. The issue is that the same mechanism that people want to put into place to combat it, is often counterintuitive because it attacks the same mechanism that allows great posters to earn on posts. This core concept is freedom of speech, and the speech component is exercise through upvoting.
Yes, but on YT there is only 1 whale of consequence: the Google.
Here there are many.
But thinking about it, there are many whales smashing YT, but they're Big Corporate and not really part of the ecosystem, other than massive investors.
I tend to be in line with Joseph above.