I for one am not sure why we should be catering anything to the casual user?
The world population is casual users. Steem is dependent on having the largest network effect in the long run, so it is crucial that it be a desirable system for everyone, not just hardcore steemians.
I think it's possible, for better or worse, that Steemit ends up being a network for the elite.
The onboarding methods and the cost associated for new accounts kind of lead me to think that.
We will end up disrupted by a network for the non-elite, in that case.
I would also say that the financial elite typically have less time to be posting to a social network, and thus a higher vote-power consumption favours them. The people favoured by low vote power consumption are those with loads of free time or bots (which are neither the masses nor the elite).