RE: Steemit has problems. I have The Grand Solution.
i was thinking something like each person per day could have 10 votes each worth 1 SBD or something, so either you have good social network where people really like giving it to you or your post is really worthy of that 1 SBD. (if you want to vote more than 10 posts, then you can use the delegated votes from others, instead of pouring all the votes to limited number of post that person could read per day). This should diversify the value being paid for each post, and the content spectrum of the post.
To me right now steemit is like a journal publication group, post are submitted to review (not peer review!!) , get "paid" if pass the "selected" panel (with huge SP), while post that are not within their expertise becomes undervalued and those writers will gradually fade out from the community. As the platform is more like a publication group rather a social media platform for leisure while earning money at the same time.
Bots will happen, I understand but i do believe that there are ways to discourage or reduce the use of bots.
I think we need to not pretend that we're all here for the money, as you say, and provide some monetary benefit for the elites on top, which is why I came up with this idea, it aims to satisfy the rich 1% while also handing it down to the honest portion of the 99%. Removing a whale's power by limiting their vote power would de-incentivize them, I'd guess, and again it would be so much of an overhaul that it wouldn't happen in decades... you know how slow progress is on here!