If steem as a token is capable of succeeding at all, then this problem will solve itself. The only way a token can justify it's value is if holding it enables one to profit also outside of steem, meaning that one can invest in Steem Power and use ones ability to reward certain types of work allows the holder to build services or online businesses that generate revenue completely outside of what the reward pool generates. If people do succeed in that, meaning they can buy 100 000 STEEM and expect to make let's say 2 000$ pr month on top of curation rewards, then their willingness to pay for steem will be higher than those wanting to purchase delegations to self-vote or purchase a whale's vote (as the whale is then better off selling delegation to the one doing the actual business).

To me, it seems obvious that we're better off spending time inventing new ways to use our Steem Power to incentivise the talented people already on steemit (there are quite a few actually, not even counting myself(!) ) to create something of value that can be monetized both on the platform and outside of the ecosystem. It will benefit the innovators, it will benefit the token, and it will help solve the problem of abusive vote and delegation buying.

Got a few more points to add on top of that, but this comment is already becoming longer than my average steemit.chat post.