The purpose is not to upset the whale-centric system (it has serious benefits in terms of eliminating sybil votes), but more to increase retention at the lower levels.

That's certainly a nice goal, but it it aims to retain the minnow who wants to click instead of write. I certainly understand: I tried to snap up some curation rewards when I started out here! But I also got the idea that I should be writing instead of just clicking away.

Are you trying to address a perceived unfairness induced by the impression (not "fact," impression) that the whales are making huge bank simply by clicking?