Another option though is a user who's been here 3 years, but started with nothing but the free allocated 15sp, so has only worked his way up to maybe 100SP in the intervening time, at about .10 per post and a post per day. (Much more common) He knows the platform, the witnesses, the needs of the community, but his voting power is minute.

Or the rich person who heard he could make a lot of money pumping out shitposts or running a bot, so bought lots of STEEM which, BONUS!, he can also use to vote on his own posts and swap upvotes from other rich users in exchange for witness votes. (What I know was the case with at least one Steemian in the past couple years.)

All 4 scenarios sometimes play out, so you could argue either in favor of total democracy (equal weight) vs oligopoly (more control to those with more resources).