I understand your concern. I have personal opinion for that solution: decease Steem's inflation for reward pool and put them on to respective SMTs/Tribes SMTs/Tribes will develop their own reward pool distribution policies and content creators will find their own niche in tribes/SMTs. Moreover, they will require small amount of investment to have say in respective tribe/SMTs.

For example, I am the biggest stakeholder of @steem.leo tribe and I can curate my own niche which is investments and trading. Steemit is a jungle where nobody hears screaming from small actors.

Please check your LEO wallet for small upvote after 7 days, if you already have no LEO yet.