Part of the problem involves the math, imo. Which is the justification for the downvote. Limited pool from inflation, yet pretending that ones stake is a proportional pull from that pool. Yet if everyone was free to vote 100% as they wished with their stake without opposition there would be crumbs for even most in the upper sphere of stake.

I noticed this from the start with insane charges of "reward pool rape" being bandied about. Against some who bought their stake initially even. Yet at no time have I ever heard one peep about perhaps its the math, which can't possibly accommodate any real numbers of folks.

After watching this for a couple years now, it seems obvious that the hope has been for SMT (and/or the Aggroed hybrid) to create an alternative means (appearance wise really) of reward to help hide the fact that current reward math simply doesn't add up.

In this response

@lucylin/re-bilprag-qdnbzq

you mention onboarding one person per year. It could never happen. As you point out, 10000 would become 80000 within 4 years, which all things remaining constant percentage wise in activity, would dilute/reduce current payouts by almost 90% for most ( I say most as those on auto voters would still retain a higher share of the pool, but would still feel the impact a lot nonetheless).

This would also be exacerbated by the slowdown of inflation. Sadly, I do believe that it was probably known from creation that the math would only be sustainable if those in at the beginning held most of the initial stake and that instilling the idea that down voting was good for the community to stop theft and abuse would help extend the life of this illusion the math is sustainable.

A final observation on the intent is this. If the real objective was to bring in the masses, there would be some sort of reverse curve that rewarded lower staked accounts greater than higher staked, in order to promote ownership feelings and entice masses to come. As it stands now, most come, get little to no attention and leave. Or, they come with a large following, get the crap downvoted out of them to make sure they don't stay and reveal that bad reward math.