But why build that on Hive? Thats the question needing an answer.

Fast, feeless, solid 'community'.
IF something liquidity ready showed up, we have liquidity.

Splinterlands did it, but it turned into a somewhat adjacent community, not seen by many as core.

Splinterlands got the same back of the hand that marky, and many other capable devs, got when they arrived in 'the community'.
Splinterlands was perfectly justified in making their thing chain agnostic, 'the chain' rejected them as capable partners.

I would reject taking anything from anyone

Not what I am asking.

If blogging is core, upvotes come from those with stake, it cant come from those without. So the solution must be elsewhere.

Jeebus, tell me you don't understand the math without saying you don't understand the math.
Did you not read the post backing my claim?

When whales vote, everybody else's vote loses value.
IF no whales voted, the coin would distribute more widely.

So the solution must be elsewhere.

It is what it is.
You can hear what I was told as many, many people left, or you can stick you fingers in your ears and make blah, blah sounds.
Here is another.

Maybe, at some point, in the far distant future, there will be enough activity to warrant the level of power currently being wielded against toddlers and runts, but the math people are telling me to doubt that that day will ever arrive.
More likely is that we watch the dust devil spiral, potentially for another 10 years.
Never going to zero, occasional pumps to dump into.