Thanks for mentioning this. I was just talking about it with my wife just last night. This seems to be a valid concern, especially when you see how much Steam Power is increasing via interest every day for the whales. If the price of STEEM goes up along with their exponentially growing stash, that could make their votes even more powerful, further increasing the incentive to do this. I'm hopeful the altcoin world has seen their share of scam coins and are ready for something different in STEEM. Time will tell.

I also think, in a way, SP is just a marker for influence. As a social species, we respond to influence. We want to be part of the "in" crowd and get them to help us out. Often we do this with money, but it also shows up in many other forms. I wonder if we'll ever escape the hierarchy aspects of our nature, and I see Steemit as a big social experiment along those lines.