the problem is the reward pool is up for grabs by oanyone, in anyway they can.
It belongs to know one - it is no one poroery.
ergo..it can't function as a healthy free market (free markets depend on property transactions ,to exist)
The reward pool is not that and that's the fundamental flaw to the system.
(especially when it's sold as 'free market' grrrrrr)
Just not having self upvotes would help so much. Its a token use case but at the same time its adding no value. If you my 1000 dollars of steem your upvote power is worth only a few cents its not convincing anyone to buy or hold on to steem. All its doing if giving whales printing power.