I like the proposal. I would go as far as saying that there should be 50% payout distributed through STEEM power, and 50% distributed through reputation.

This may be getting a little complex, but I also feel that if you were rewarded more per vote depending on the reputation that your account holds, then that would encourage users to stick with the site and push for a higher rep so that they will reach a point where they know they will be rewarded for the time they have invested into the site.

I don't know how that would play out in the long run when a vast number of people reach level 75+, but as long as the value of STEEM increases with the reputation of the users--which I think it will, especially with some of these changes--then it should be sustainable.

The whales would need something in return for their sacrifice though. If the more STEEM power you hold, the faster your reputation grows(not excessively though), then that could serve as the whales getting something back for what they have lost, as well as encouraging them to make more posts to take advantage of their faster growing reputation.

This would make downvotes so much more damaging however, so there would have to be some sort of way to reverse downvotes through user consensus. This could be established through a function on the site which allows users to vote on the validity of downvotes for very small rewards of STEEM. If more than 75% of users vote for a downvote to be overturned, then the downvote would be reversed and applied to the person who used it on another user, so this will make people think twice before downvoting for insignificant reasons.

This is getting way too complicated and I'm half asleep, so these ideas are probably rather out there.

The fact that reading your piece has just sparked my mind into creating these ideas, whether they're good or not, is testimony to the thought-provoking nature of your post.

Upvoted, followed and resteemed.