RE: Open Discussion: Fix Trending & Stop Promotion Abuse
"Continually trying to treat what are symptoms of the disease rather than curing the disease itself is futile."
This is true, but it is also true that doing so is highly profitable, thus our allopathic medical establishment.
You failed to elucidate the underlying problem, IMHO, which is stake-weighting. Stake-weighting is also the source of meatspace problems, but Steemit makes it worse by directly linking financial holdings to societal power. At least in RL that link is obscured by rhetoric and the need to corrupt society covertly.
The virtues of society aren't even mostly financial. Simply making everything about money degrades society, and stake-weighting guarantees this. As a result, pimps and war profiteers are better rewarded in RL, just as on Steemit.
This is the root of the problem. All else is a symptom.