Excellent read Luke. It's hard to know what is best for the platform. People who got in early and invested and are now whales seem to think it's ok voting for themselves massive payments, sort of like getting dividends on their investment.
Voting circles are another thing altogether, this is really bad but again they feel it's ok for to vote each other and get the majority of rewards for themselves. Greed is a terrible thing.
How to solve the problem, get rich and become a whale. Upvoted and resteemed.