About Steemit and DPOS; throwing it out there, for discussion (guaranteed butterfly and flower free)

The community Steemit and the Steem blockchain are plutocratic by design, as voting is wealth-weighed. So be it, but:

In the absence of other, sufficiently similar communities, there is no economic incentive for the wealthy here to behave in the interest of the community and push bad actors out. A few try because they care; most are uninterested.

This means that in the absence of such competing communities, we depend solely on the good will of the wales and witnesses to halt cartels, vote buying, and collusion. That good will is not necessarily present, nor is it ecouraged by economic incentives.

I'm starting to think a DPOS-based chain-cum-community will always degenerate into a cartel of rent seekers, colluders and schemers (and a powerless rest) in the absence of other, similar, and competing communities. This is self-reinforcing once it has started, because of where the wealth flows.

Should the competing communities come into existence, then, at least, there is a chance the least corrupt community and its blockchain will win and provide a better place than what Steemit has become or ever can be on its own; you could then vote with your legs and move to another culture.

So, maybe, on its own, a DPOS-based chain and community is not automatically self-cleaning without external competition, whatever the rules and reward curves may be, and what we are seeing is the inevitable endgame of any DPOS-based chain and community without competition.

Discuss among yourselves, I'm going to take a Soddittole^tm and watch television.