great post! tyvm for sharing it, i will immediately follow right after my 2 cents.

I've got two points here:

1- i believe that the comparison between splinterlands and real world countries is misleading. Splinterlands economy is not the same as a nation-state, it could be better understand, in my view, if compared with something similar, like the whole soccer industry (Italian bias). I tried a very quick google search with no matches, but i presume that if we can calculate the same coefficient for all football players income (from all leagues in a single country) we would get a similar result. But still the football industry can thrive. That's because there is an incredible premium to be at the top, here in spl it could be seen like there is an incredible premium to be early. 

2- a high gini doesn't mean necessarily that the industry/country isn't doing well. A high gini is just a disproportion of wealth, and it is bad only if there is a good portion of the population that is cut away and cannot participate at all. In a country, the contemporaneous presence of a high gini AND a high portion of the population that cannot afford a dignitous living is a bad thing. This is mostly the case every time, that's why we are often confused about inequality, but luckly we have some outliers, Netherlands is one of the most inequal countries in the world, but still a very good place to start a business or to live in.

Here in splinterlands the gini is skyroketed yes, but still the lower income players can play and earn. and it's a very nice place where to spend one hour a day. Nonetheless, i believe you have a point with the land system, we will see how that is going to impact the economy and the participation of the new players (like me), i hope it won't be terrible and i do trust that the team can handle it properly.