I like what you have written in this post and the points you have made.
In my opinion, the five minute rewards curve, in combination with autovoting makes the oligarchical system within decentralised platforms such as this, a glaring fault, and only makes the issue even more obvious. A lot of people with large stakes, who have their buddy circles developed won't like to hear that, but it's a fact of how things work. We can talk about community as much as we like, but if the same people constantly vote themselves in circles, then you won't be getting a mass of new users to onboard.
I completely agree with you on this PK. That was the problem with Steemit. In the beginning we attracted people until such time as those people figured out it was a massive circle jerk. The people at the top never had any intention of creating a decentralized platform, but instead used the concept to get others fight their battles and escape blame for the collapse. Bottom line, without purging the BS from the system then this chain will pick up right where the last one left off (in decline).