telling minnows ( still 90+% of steemit's userbase) that their votes don't count and they shouldn't even bother voting I don't think is a good idea.
I'm still on the fence on whether curation bots are good for steemit or should be banned.
in any case steemit needs to create a system where great content can be found easier, for example introducing retweets like on twitter, and other user experience improvements that will help content which is really popular get more exposure. then instead of the "follow the whale" effect we might even see the opposite: some whale bots upvoting posts as soon as they start getting massively retweeted, therefore following "wisdom of the crowds".
then minnows voting/retweets might still be financially insignificant but at least have some importance in determining what is popular content.