Would you prefer 40 rich whales on the platform with all the stake more centralized, or 400 or 4,000 or 40,000 people with that stake more decentralized instead?

It depends... If we have the true decentralization, those who earn 0.1$ will start earning 1-2$ and it's good for them, but still, it's a low amount of money. However, if decentralization is complete, forget about Utopian and similar projects that actually generate something valuable that requires serious payouts.

What is the solution - there isn't the problem to begin with.

The problem/question is how to make content/product valuable enough so it can generate some sort of $ revenue (ads, services, patrons...).
Our comparative advantage? We can back it up a bit with crypto.