I was against the use of a non-linear reward curve. I would be more in favor of a step. Reducing rewards for people who earn under 2 Steem would have been more appropriate than 20 just to get rid of the people who are voting at 0.1% with only 20sp in their account or whatever.
I don't understand people used to get rewards by all sorts of ways. However, Steem has matured. Just think of the wild west analogy.
There are a lot of statistics out there for Steem. None of them I've seen are showing bad new as a result of the new Steem changes.
I follow abh12345's engagement league, the engagement seems stable. No one really cares that comment voting is no longer as common. Honestly, I think the decline in Steem's price stopped it just as much as anything. People will engage if the content is interesting or 'engaging' that's about it.