My understanding is that 'some' of the whales support each other in voting circles (so they are probably early adopters and together just upvote each others content without even reading their content.
I tend to agree that they should delegate out some of their SP to community projects if they dont have the time/interest in curating good content.
I tend to spend alot of time on my own feed and find the content pretty good - I am careful and selective on who I follow, and not afraid to unfollow people if their quality goes down, they resteem to much etc - I see this as positive infact as I think 'Why follow someone your not interested in hearing from?'
Unfortunately the majority of the biggest whales wont make a change! Im only a small minnow and can already see that a focus on community and helping everyone grow together is the best way for long term success of the platform - that way everyone wins rather than the select few at the top. Thats why so many people come and go on Steemit - they think they will make truck loads of money with little effort but thats not how the system works