I'm really glad to see you, @therealwolf, admitting that the system needs fixing, really - it's about time. When I saw the birth of bid bots I guessed this would happen, the proof of brain was always a big part of why I myself invested in Steem a long time ago. That's where I saw the value and it's been really hard to stay here ever since that promise was killed with selling the votes to anyone with money and now with Ned and Steemit Inc acting the way they do being the last straw for me personally forcing me to think again if my investment here is wise with long term mindset (+5-10 years), I still think this ship can be turned around though but I'm unpowering to have my Steem liquid and ready to abandon the ship just in case I don't see any psotive progress. I do however consider people talking about this issue being one, first we have to admit there are problems rather than cheer we're the best in every case, when Ethereums one project, makerDao is more valuable than our whole blockchain.

"please fix the system. (Incentivized downvotes & higher curation rewards)"

I think this is a good start, but I'd also offer SP holders a way of gaining their rewards passively, without selling their votes and meddling with the proof-of-brain system. Some people actually want to make this place work and are willing to curate, even for lesser rewards, some don't. These two groups should be seperated rather than put together.

Implementing these 3 systems would be a strong start in making this place valuable again for both content creators and consumers.