This is getting too complicated:
How about this @dantheman?
- posting rewards based on SP
- curation rewards equal regardless to SP
That would eliminate the described issues I suppose.
- Whales would need to produce quality articles - when appreciated, then lot of $, when not less $
- Whales would upvote according to post quality, regardless to SP of author because curation reward would be equal across the site
- quality will go up
- fair competition
- downvoting will not be necessary because there will be no extra profit from prioritizing whales but whales will get better author rewards based on SP so SP advantage will stay