A system that rewards based on subjective opinion is unbalanced if it doesn't contain a way to take rewards away based on subjective opinion. Is it better to have an unbalanced network to avoid all that drama? Many have come to this conclusion, and all the networks with this concept in mind have failed pretty hard... and there have been multiple iterations.

As stated in the OP the real solution to this problem is a layer zero one, meaning people get together and decide was is appropriate and what isn't... and those who wield too much power and cause too much drama are put in check. As also stated in the OP, no one is actually working toward this goal, so there is no consensus that this is even a problem in the first place.

When all the biggest stakeholders are signaling that there isn't a problem combined with the fact that none of the other platforms that "fix" the problem are successful... that's just very telling and should not be ignored. Again this is a problem that can be fixed by working inside the system so it doesn't require changing the core code to some other model that we already know doesn't work.