i don't really have any problem with someone valuing a more informed insightful opinion more than some random opinion, to value it 1000x more is fine, but when we try to place a monetary value on it that is 1000x more, things get sticky. I think this is mostly because money tends to attract more money and because someones reputation seems to matter more than what the produce after a certain point. If I posted "Do you like soup?" with the same kind of irony, i wouldn't have gotten nearly as much attention for it, even if it made it's way to the trending page. I probably would have been flagged.

You may be right about continuous posts on payouts but it would also be easy to game the system. Users could delegate SP and revote on the same posts continuously. I would like to keep some of my old posts alive though, for sure.