Something that would encourage more users to power up would be not seeing so many of the whales powering down. I think that's one of the largest psychological hurdles. When the early holders and investors into the platform appear to be cashing out of their investment - while still in beta - it doesn't exactly send a signal to future investors and users that there is confidence that the platform will succeed. It doesn't matter what the motivations are for cashing out. It's a perception problem.
But the question is - how can a whale cash out if they don't earn SBD from curating? They must power down to cash out the rewards. Or...they can engage more in posts and post themselves. However, when this happens, the self upvote becomes another problem and potential for abuse - perceived or real.
So, we have several different issues in play, but the proposed solutions never seem to address them. And the largest resistance that the rest of us see actually comes from whales. At some point, there will need to be a compromise - or we can all just watch the value of Steem plummet, in which case, powering up or down will be moot.
The platform was launched with an incredibly high concentration of stake. There were reasons it was done that way with which one can agree or disagree, but that is in the past and can't be changed now.
The only mathematically feasible way for stake to be redistributed without taking many, many years (as it would to do so via rewards, and even then only if the vested SP remains above 90% which is uncertain) is for existing whales to power down and sell. That is absolutely essential to creating a healthier balance of influence and investment, and discouraging it is harmful.
It will play out to where whales have the stake they actually want, instead of what they inherited from the nature of the launch, and then the power downs will slow to an equilibrium, with a wider base of stakeholders. The sooner we get there the better.
I don't disagree that it's a way to redistribute influence. My point is that the reasons aren't being communicated well - especially to those outside of the platform. Investors only see that there is a lot of Steem being dumped in the market. Users only know why it's happening if it's communicated here on Steemit. There doesn't appear to be much of an attempt to explain why whales are powering down, what that money is being used for if it's Steemit-related, or how it could actually be beneficial.
More transparency and some explanations would go a long way.