It's more profitable to hold liquid Hive on exchanges and CASH IN when the Koreans pump it. The notion of POWER UP is only meaningful to those that develop an emotional attachment to Hive (and feel they need to be somewhere on that "power" hierarchy.)
The system doesn't need crafty ways to trick people into believing POWER UP is better for their money dreams.
The system simply needs to be more than a basic blogging game where you need to POWER UP to take a slice of the pie.
ATTRACT A LARGE AUDIENCE should be what Hive needs to do. Without the obligation for that audience to be forced into the money game. Once big audience is here, money games can then be part of the reason they interact with the system.
Connectivity though, should be THE PRIME REASON why they CHOOSE HIVE in the first place. COMMUNITIES where meant to open Hive (steemit) to that but instead they became bubbles. Unimaginative hidden groups where content is only produced for the voting cycle. NOT for the real sense of what community is. Appreciation and human engagement.
For a trader, I get that. I'm in the 'emotional attachment" group.