My reply, in general, to smooth's comments in the other thread:
Well, given that Ignite Marketing have been paid many thousands of dollars to basically pay 'influencers' on the web to promote hive, post here and bring new people in - let's see how many leave due to this conflict of interests at the payout level. It would be shockingly stupid (but predictable) if the proposal pool were used to pay for marketing that brings in people from other networks who then leave when they see the 'not random' large downvoting (probably not even understanding how the mechanics work) - rendering the marketing spend a complete waste and even negatively effecting Hive's PR in the process.
Marketing is a thing, it is complicated - it is based on psychology and perception.. The very things that are the only things backing the value of cryptocurrencies in most cases. Sometimes, just because you calculate a formula based purely on maths that leads you to think you are 'right' TM - you can easily be missing out on the bigger picture that includes human factors, psychology and emotion. In this case, I feel you are - or at least are not fully considering the big picture. To me, the difference between these two angles is the difference between systems engineering and information science - the latter does not treat reality as if it is a cold machine.
You get it.