Kind of a lot to unpack here but my take away is that with power [Hive Power] comes responsibility. One of these responsibilities is using sound judgement and perspective to decide if a post is being over rewarded. I think you're asking that those wielding the power to look at the bigger picture before slapping a down vote on a piece of content..right? I think that's a fair point and a reasonable ask, if that was actually one of your points.
decent and experienced writers earn out in the real world. If a post is surpassing this you can ask yourself is this level of writing is what I would expect from a freelancer earning 0.10 a word. I like this view because people are writing content to earn, and they have options, they can choose Hive or they can choose a content mill for employment or direct employment with an established publisher. Well written, edited, formatted content should earn, if it does have these things it really shouldn't earn anywhere near this level.I've put most of my stake into my @battlegames project and am constantly doing manual curation, so I see a lot content each day. To help determine what I think should be actual value I take the perspective of an intermediate or advanced blogger or writer who is earning lets say 0.10 cents a word on an 800 word article. Thats about $80 USD, this is what
Anyways just some food for thought, I think its good to raise these points as you have, have discussion, toss ideas and theories around..