¨the reason we decided not to do this is to reduce our memory usage and limit the working set which needs to be kept in memory by consensus nodes.¨

@theoretical can you please give more details / an example / some numbers for this statement.

The text itself is static and could be stored in the Interplanetary File System.
So the question is what is about the consensus? Is it that expansive, if so what part?

Just as suggestion:
Couldn't rewarding content be the same way implemented like a simple transaction? Like every day you can distribute 0,1% of your ¨inflated¨ steem power to articles payed out in steem dollars. Steem Power that is not be distributed after 30 days is evenly distributed to all active participants.
Self / sybil voting is visible through the transparency of the blockchain. Participants that do self / sybil voting could therefore be flagged.

For example you have 100 Steem Power. If you dont vote for 10 days you have 100 * 0,1% * 10 = 1 Steem converted to steem dollars worth to distribute.
If 50% of the Steem power holder do not take part in voting, you have 2 Steem to distribute.
With the vote itself, a part of that could be instantly transfered to the owner of the article. No need for any further consensus.
If one self votes, the account itself could get flagged. With every flag the steem power to distribute could be the same way reduced like an upvote would have given. Both the flagger and the flagged person loosens therefore equally steem to distribute, that could be distributed from others.