The problem is in the reward curve. If whales would band to no only stop voting but to really police worthy from unworthy content then we could see a positive impact

The reward curve is only part of a very complicated equation. The problem is bots and inactive wales. It happened to me, there is not always great content at the top so I find myself going to other sites very often. With all these posts promoting scams and blatant ripoff content earning spots all over the trending pages; quality blogs / insights / news ends up with rewards centered around a few accounts.

A big problem with some of these accounts is the curation economics encourage actors to actively upvote these fluff posts based on the Shilling point that others will as well. The cycle continues.

I agree that some of the larger stakeholders like @berniesanders should take a more active role in policing the blockchain but who knows, maybe they like scamcoins and advertisements.