From the minnow perspective I think it has to become viable to earn from a post without being found by a whale .
Simply because of huge numbers: with the huge growth of the platform and hence overload of new content the job to find good content is impossible to be done by the small number of whales.
So if new contributors get in a situation where hundreds of votes by new members don't move the needle in earnings or visibility it will lead to disengagement.
That will stop growth dead in its tracks and will devalue your account in the long run.
In the end I think you as a whale are in the position of an affiliate marketer: give up some percentage of the pie in order to grow the pie exponentially.
Will you lose money in the short run? Maybe, but its not in your interest either if the perception persists or is started that only whales are raking in the money!
This is a nice sounding comment that didn't really address specific points in my post. Congrats on getting voted so high though. You know, I did offer an idea in my post to limit whale power.
On the other hand I don't believe that a system where your vote to yourself gives you high value is healthy for the community in the long run. The whole concept of producing content in this platform and in every social platform is to give useful, valuable content to the world and earn your place there, not to post and upvote by yourself. Even if I am not fully aware of how the system works and will work after the fork, as @neoxian presented the current working state and with the facts that I read, in my opinion he gave a really good preview of what will happen and we must considered the consequences.
Started to think things through after reading @Aggroed's post: https://steemit.com/hf19/@aggroed/shaved-whale-balls-and-mega-circle-jerks-the-economics-of-hf-19-a-witness-update
starting to see what @neoxian meant with the cockpit idea.
The argument seems to be that although now a fraction goes to minnows, there will be a risk of even more money concentration by the top earners,
with a net effect of slim to no earnings for all the rest. Replied to @neoxian's reply with more explanation.