there is no evidence of this at all, in fact I think a bigger issue is that most whales are relatively inactive, which is an issue that can hopefully be solved too.

The fact that there is no evidence against it is probably not good enough. Maybe if evidence to prove it isnt happening was made, that could help, but given the envy factor I think anything short of a proactive charity type of policy encoded in the algorithms, outsiders will just make stuff up to convince themselves steemit cant be real.

If you just go to places outside of steemit island you will hear people see the envy factor expressed as "unfair payouts" is the primary (only?) negative.