To start, I enjoy Soulkeep but feel there is no chance whatsoever for it ever to get some adoption unless some basic flaws are fixed.
The reward payouts are extremely top-heavy to the point where only a few players end up getting all the rewards each day while there is no need for this to be like that. That should be evened out way more and I would also take half of the reward pool for each league and guarantee a payout partly to players who manage to beat the first level and some extra to those who beat the bonus level. It makes no sense to move up in leagues even if you get the cards and get stuck outside of the 50%.
The 150$+ Pay2Win Hero is also a massive issue. If you don't own it you stand no chance in the game and it totally breaks the motivation as without it feels the best you can get is just inside of the lowest paid spots especially since it is free to use in the game. No new players will come in because of this extreme pay2win dynamic.
As for changes to make Soulkeep actually valuable for Splinterlands. Maybe giving players a free test run each day and if they want to actually play for the leaderboard they have to pay the ticket price which would help to secure future rewards also once they run out of SPS. Some kind of SPS staking requirement also would be nice.
I kinda like your first idea and think maybe something could be done there. As much as 50% of each league's rewards get shared evenly between everyone who beats the first map. The remaining rewards are then payed out as currently is setup by total score. This I think would encourage more players to at least do the daily free shot.
I kinda disagree with your 2nd point though. I have 1 yes and it can make a huge difference yes, but it is not an I win button. I've stupidly placed it more than once and watched it get blitzed. I've also replayed some days 3-4 times and scored higher in later matches when the hero was on cooldown.
I don't own the hero and never used it, so I'm kind of going off the assumption that it makes a huge difference also seeing the price it goes for. It might not be as bad as I think, but the fact remains that new players have the same reaction. I guess in a way it's similar to the Quad Killer for those who don't own it.
I wouldn't mind the pay2win aspect if the rewards weren't so top-heavy and if there was something like a guaranteed reward for being able to complete a tournament.
It has less hit points than an equal level Slime Trooper while doing slightly more damage at range than the trooper does up close. Up close the hero does about 1/3 as much damage per swing. If more than 1 mob gets on her she can go down fast. Some mobs can 1v1 her.
I think the game could use at least another hero maybe 2 or 3. It has that big hero slot in the center and everyone should get to use it. We have a legendary now maybe a common, rare and epic. A decent tank hero might be good, a ton of hp and defense but almost no damage output. Something to stand at a chokepoint so towers can do their thing. Some other ideas could be floated. If everyone could play some kind of hero I don't think the current one would be such a big deal.
Indeed, it would be nice for there to be more heroes and affordable ones. However, this will devalue the current heroes an upset the ones who own them.
I just posted 2 suggested changes and credited you one of them. See what you think.
https://peakd.com/hive-13323/@ocoma/soulkeep-pay-more-not-less-a-counter-suggestion-to-staking