Totally agree with your points. What is the solution? I suggest we will always need gatekeepers to inform us of "good" versus "bad" content, whether we call these people "whales" or whatever doesn't matter. Each tribe develops it's own language.
The potential for these gatekeepers to game the system for their own advantage will be ever present. Again, what is the solution?
I believe the solution is the market itself. The majority I spoke of is not the majority on the platform presently - I agree 55K is only stage one - but the millions envisaged as joining in the future.
Are these potential contributors/creators/curators/consumers going to be attracted to a platfrom they perceive from the outset as biased and dictatorial? I doubt it.
I truly believe that unless Steemit founders get their "Why" right pretty soon, and that this will align with the belief systems of the "majority" yet to join the platform, lots of whales, dolphins and minnows are going to be left floundering when the tide goes out.
If they get it right, great things can happen here. As Uncle Ben siad to Peter Parker "With great power comes great responsibility". Give the whales a chance, haha!