"it sort of already is pay to play, sink money in and buy steempower and upvote for more"

"if you don't stop it then its going to be used. In my mind its like going to war and one country has nukes but the other country says ok nukes are destructive to the environment so we wont use them. You know who is going to win."

Thank you for pointing out what should be blindingly obvious.

Code is law. Fix the code or give it up. Write the pull request or find someone who can.

Extremely relevant:

https://steemit.com/steem/@lexiconical/code-is-law-only-when-i-want-otherwise-it-s-abuse-the-shaming-syndicate-of-steemit-our-own-brand-of-sjws-and-social-repression

PS - Can we LOL at this part together:

"There is a way on Steemit to be able to pay for attention and that is the "Promoted" tab"