"That extra influence, regardless if it’s used to reward self or others, is a major selling point."

Turns out to not be such a selling point. Instead it's a vector for corruption. That's why we are where we are today on Steem. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It's broke as fuck, and needs fixing.

Steem is vastly improved over BTC as a DLT. However, it's so corrupt that that technical superiority, it's superb use case, and every advantage is outweighed by it's corruption, and is left simply a shadow of BTC, merely because it's a DLT.

That's about the crappiest outcome we could undertake.