I think we need better, more compelling proposals.

Right now (I guess things have shifted a bit since your post) the keychain development and consensus proposal to reduce power down time to 4 weeks (which has no budget cost attached to it) are both sitting above return.

In the past we have seen a lot of very questionable or poor proposals. Those are supposed to be below return.

I personally share your view that the documentation proposal is a good one, but ultimately it is up to the voters and voters are less convinced by that one than the others.

As far as I can tell the system is working, but proposers need to up their game. I shouldn't have to remind anyone that Steem is suffering from some very hard times economically. More funds flowing out and potentially getting sold on the market is not cost-free. Proposals to spend money need to be compelling.