I think it's a safe assumption that the whales/dolphins will have a large influence in what gets funded. While in theory a lot of smaller voters could make a difference, my guess is that many simply won't vote.
But it could definitely change the current situation, in which decisions about what work gets done is pretty much left up to Steemit Inc. And where pretty much all the blockchain work is done by Steemit Inc.
What interests me most about this proposal of yours is if it were applied to a nation's government. Perhaps it would be best to make every vote count for the same as opposed to having the wealthiest dictate all decisions, and there would also have to be a reliable means of ensuring there are no vulnerabilities that would allow for people to vote more than once. But such a democratic voting system applied directly to a nation's tax goals would allow the people to have a say in where the government's funds go - to what projects they should support and to which ones they should not. The people could even vote on things such as minimum wage, their own tax rates and government worker's salaries. I don't think that many are interested in voting nowadays, because it doesn't seem to make much of a difference. But if people had the chance to vote on how funding was to be used in their communities and countries, without having to place trust in a person, I believe far more people would be interested in taking the time to do so.
Something like this could potentially go wrong if not enough people understood where best to be spending the money, but, if done correctly, I also think that there is a chance that this system you propose, if given to an entire nation to decide the use of tax funds, could change the world in the most profound of ways.
Yes, I touched upon this same idea earlier in my reply to oldtimer. It's ideas like this that drive a lot of my interest in cryptocurrency.
If you ever want to talk more about such things... It's very close to the core of my work. Alx
What may mirror POS better on a national level is being able to decide where your taxes are spent. It would then become a once a year decision on ones tax form with a list of all governmental departments and the ability to earmark what percentage of your taxes go to each on the list.