I agree whole heartedly that the liquidity of exceptional posts (for lack of a better term) has decreased to a slow trickle. But that is on us for not recognizing or rewarding them when they have come in the past (mostly for selfish reward curve reasons). On top of that, the only way to raise a bar, is to set one in the first place. To have something to point to in order to show potential authors, if you can do better than this, you will displace this. That means rewarding the best the platform has to offer at a given time (within reason), not waiting for unicorns trying to win the lottery. When a showcase exists, I now have the ability to actually recruit authors who are able to do a better job to get themselves into the showcase. When authors are consistently outcompeted by 'token preservation posts' and esoteric steem-centric posts, it's demoralizing. While I have no problem with technical solutions, it can't come at the cost of solutions that drive value in terms of IP on the platform.