That latter part sings to me. I think that is where the benefit will lie, especially for the niche interests. Plus more control will help communities manage people just in it for the money.
I’ve seen some shockers on here. People who grabbed photoshops of bad Christmas jumpers to win community competitions, people who literally copy and paste your comment with a few word changes and an upvote to nick any potential interaction rewards. Mad!
One of my concerns with the SMT model is that we'd create to many echo chambers where different communities exclude everyone they disagree with. That might get weird.