Thank you for your comment @lextenebris! I can tell you've put a lot of thought into this as well. While I disagree that wisdom of the crowd does not exist, I do agree as you pointed out that despite the blue paper's claim, it does not exist here on steem. So, it would be wise if they either abandon the concept altogether or attempt to honestly achieve it. This cannot be done without radical changes to the blockchain, and that is why I suggest that we try it out with content sorting first, and do it at the condenser level. By using the wisdom of the crowd to sort content, it can result in a better-looking trending page, and that alone would make steem more attractive to potential investors. It's a baby step, won't fix everything, and might not work perfectly, but at the very least, a myriad of steem articles wouldn't be stinking up the joint. Oh, and I think they'll get rid of the downvotes when they realize that it's killing retention and disincentivizing investors. The big question is, by that time, will it be too late?