You bring up a very interesting point, @dwinblood. The size of the witness node storage space could exponentially increase with duplicate media; heck with enough growth.
To this end, I look forward to the development of view.ly and the likes to fruition and intend to get more involved in the process. Looking into what a Steemit Witness entails, it is seemingly fairly resource intensive and would be offset by significant at whale (maybe dolphin) level income.
Thus creating yet another centralization dilemma. Whales can afford to be witnesses. Make your witness votes count, community. Enjoyed the read, thanks for your continued contribution.