Steemit is a gamification economy. Thus, the solution should be also based on gamification.
The way I see it, Steemit has a "bad game" design. It is based on FRUSTRATION.
Frustration because you can not advance fast enough because the people with high SP can literally crush you and you cannot do anything about it, because of a lot of things.
I THINK the motivation behind this is to make you want to BUY steem, instead of "earn" it. I do not know for sure, but I swear it looks that way. The system seems to be DESIGNED to BLOCK you unless you invest money in it.
Starting from that point, then we should correct the gaming system. Making the ladder easier to climb. Blocking cheats. Adding crowd strategies for protection against powerful players...