There is a fundamental difference between reward distribution and publishing of content to your followers.

In this case I am referring to censorship of transactions on the blockchain, not curation.

If someone wanted to buy $4M worth of STEEM then the price would quickly climb back toward $4 and they would have influence equal to a few whales. If they use their voting influence to promote garbage then other whales would probably counter them.

It is true that whales control the narrative on Steem by directing the rewards. But people get to choose whether or not to follow the vote ranking or to simply look at their own feed of trusted bloggers.