IMHO the linear reward curve has been an improvement. What I find most strange is that reputation is nowhere found in all equations and discussions. The reasoning that a stake should be an incentive to make decisions that are good for the future of the platform doesn't seem to work well on steem because the stake allows for short term profit which is (again in my opinion) not good for the platform. In that regard steem is a complete mess, a stake doesn't influence the platform's development as this is completely centralized in steemit.inc. And at the same time a stake allows for selfishness and short term profit.

Content gets rewarded and that reward is based on the amount of money an account has. Short term that does not an incentive for good content and growth of the platform. A linear vs parabolic reward curve only hides the issue but by no means solves it.