I think the suggestion of splitting the reward pools has merit, but it could also damage newer members as that's how they make most of their money. If their posts are only getting a few cents, they're going to need the comment income. Granted, if there was a big enough pool, it could just be cutting down on the money that was paid out in the $100s for quick comments.
I like the idea of degrading the payout at set levels for posts. This makes sense from an article standpoint, but remember there are apps like Zappl now that are supposed to be like Twitter. That means comments 400 times a day to let us know you saw a bird. "Oh, it flew away!" "Wait, there's another bird." I'm not a huge fan of twitter. And there's Steepshot that's supposed to be like Instagram. Normally a picture and not much else. If someone posts a few of those, then they won't have a tier left for an article.
The point is that those are considered posts. In my opinion, the apps would be better off on another site. Maybe SMTs can take care of that. That would mean the articles that are left would be the ones subject to the degradation and the plan could work. Who is going to want to publish another article if they only get 10%? Spam cut.