And finally and this part is important, but the reasoning to buy Steem? If buying Steem doesn't result in buying influence in some way (if the whales don't actually get more voting power) then how do you convince people to actually buy Steem?

Currently the price of Steem to BTC has been falling off a cliff for some time. I'm not saying it's the fault of the reward curve but if you're going to focus on economics shouldn't you also put some discussion into how you will increase demand for the actual customer (the Steem buyer/Steem investor)?

Fairness for the poster is nice and all but at the end of the day it's the sentiment of the Steem holder which is being neglected the most. Whales are whales because they either bought a lot of Steem or they earned it. I do think yes in 2016 you had a lot of whales who lucked out by being miners or whatever but there are whales who actually bought or earned their Steem only to watch it fall off a cliff.

What do these whales who bought or earned their Steem, and who held, get in return for their investment in the community, the ecosystem, etc? If the answer is nothing then this explains the price of Steem.