Good one Sam - I felt like you were writing this for me! Even after our chat, and a lot of reading, I still struggle to understand the upvote, resteem, Steem Power v Steem, Witness and Whale dynamics and interplay. Perhaps some simplification and transparency might work, as well as a few friendly bots? My belief in human nature is that the more complicated and opaque the 'game', and the more focussed it is on being rewarded by getting followers and votes, then the more likely it is that certain kind of financially motivated people will remain in order to game the system. This inevitably results in a dilution of quality from those that remain, and a dilution of quality contributors who drift elsewhere. That is certainly my feeling in my initial weeks into the system, and may explain some of the trends you noted in your post - more and more people signing on, more and more dead accounts, and a dimunition in quality of what is actually posted. Just my minnow thoughts ...