Maybe the curve just seems overkill now with the low price, low activity. But it's still doing its job, including helping out with downvote fatigue and forcing abuse up to at least a couple of bucks instead of farming cents. It'll be much more obvious in its effectiveness when Steem has high price, high activity (and maybe low powered voting will feel less of a pinch).

Btw I think moving the current Steem (and its inflation) to an SMT is probably not the best play in the near future. Exchange listing issue + secondary tokens rarely take off + barely any demand for Steem as a bandwidth token (and my as well be using normal platforms if the reward pool is not the primary thing really). I believe getting posting/voting incentives right is our main competitive edge, although it remains to be seen if it can actually work well, especially after UI, curation tools etc mature. It's a meme by now, but I think "Communities" will help a lot.

As smooth mentioned elsewhere, one main reason why SBD is failing is likely simply because of Steem's declining value. I used to think its better to get rid of it, but a native stablecoin is probably important for mass adoption. Still seeing the face appeal of just one Steem token though.