I got into a heated discussion tonight with several people over what is to be done about the state of the blogging platforms. I am writing this post to both clarify my thoughts and get your input.
I think most of us agree that the /trending page, which is the dominant factor in the steem-blogging (steemit.com, busy.org, steempeak.com, etc) user experience, is in a bad state. When people see which content succeeds on steem-blogging there are a few different reactions:
A) A Steemian-that-never-was sees /trending and decides not to join the steem ecosystem
B) A Steemian joins, does not get the same kinds of rewards, gets discouraged and leaves
C) A Steemian figures out the relatively simple tasks needed to game the system in the same ways and becomes an "abuser"
D) A Steemian ignores /trending, develops their own mini-community, and doesn't worry about it.
Cases A and B are lost users. Case C adds to the current situation. Case D is the "good user" that we want more of.
A and B reduce demand for STEEM. C has some demand for STEEM but also sells a lot on the markets, so is probably a wash. D increases demand for STEEM.
My contention is that A, B, and C vastly outweigh D and this is the root of the problem with steem-blogging and the price of STEEM. As just one example, 
So I devised a system to create an opt-in Proof of Stake (PoS) for STEEM Power holders.
The root of the idea is that if user experience (UX) is improved by preventing the crappy content from being created in the first place, then we will be able to attract and retain more users. More users, more activity, more buyers, higher coin prices, a better environment for everyone.
The way this would be achieved is that it gives SP holders a path to get the financial rewards of PoS without having to do all those activities that crap up /trending. If a user has a way to get pretty much the same yield as a self-vote without having to create content, comment farm, circle vote, bid bot, and all the rest of it, why go through the hassle?
Effectively the system would concentrate all the rewards farming into a few posts per day instead of the thousands that we get currently.
This will go a long way to eliminating cases A, B, and C.
So I posted a draft of my plan in a private discord that has a lot of members that are very active in the steem community. And I got a very negative response. Basically the gist of the argument was that creating any kind of PoS system is a sell-out of STEEM's principles and it's better to fight the rewards farmers. Also HF21 will fix the problem, at least somewhat and eventually.
I could not seem to get across the idea that:
1, what matters most for steem-blogging, in the long run, is bringing in new people and that means the user experience is the most important thing. If HF21 takes care of all these issues then great, we don't need to do anything. If HF21 doesn't fix these issues then we are only tweaking the margins of the problem.
2, If or when Tribes and SMTs become the dominant focus, then STEEM becomes a simple utility token like TRX. And it will have a similar price of a penny or two because you only need enough to interact with the blockchain. The desired asset becomes the SCOT or SMT.
So if you want to avoid 3 cent STEEM, something needs to change.
I could bore you with anonymized screenshots of the conversation, but I think this has gone on too long already.
And for what it's worth, I do think HF21 will help, but not substantially. If you have 1 free downvote and the farmer has 10 upvotes, the net result is 9. I think the change in the curve will lead to more bid bots, not less. I am perfectly willing to be completely wrong and experience much better steem-blogging after August.