I 100% agree with your very last point Asher...

Do you not think that (minus bot owner take), delegating to a bot is essentially self-voting?

I agree with you that delegating to the bot and then receiving 90% is the same as self voting... There is practically no difference as it is just monetizing your vote value. The 10% is what the lazy man gives away so he doesn't have to open his account and then self vote. (plus may a fraction of that to not look so bad)

That's why I think this issue is a lot more complex, because the owners of the system are doing one thing, and then the community are frowning on the exact same thing done at the lower levels. Its also why people get mad when someone flags another (think haejin), because you can always find a shittier post that got a big upvote and then got to keep it. We see it every day.

I think the solution will happen when the whales are begging at some point for the "community" to develop. Usually that will occur when they want the price to stop going down. At this point there is not that kinda pain. Its fat city for many of the owners.

But it will change and they will come knocking at your door and they will say "Asher, what can we do for you so that we build a strong community?"... "Can we delegate you 100k steem power and have you build out a network where the people are happy and feel like engaging daily?" "Where is fulltimegeek, can he help us lead people to be good community participants?"

You watch, it is coming... Maybe not this week or the next... But when the price gets low enough that will be what happens. The demand for community builders like you will grow very large (and also that applies to Matt with his services too)