hey @beauknows well I think you got the right idea there, we do have SteemCleaners and Cheetabot trying to clean the network of plagiarists and spammers. But they simply can't catch them all, the win will probably only be found if most of the community is actively participating of that task.
It's a decision that all bot operators would have to agree on, the more I think about it, the more I can see the challenges. If only one whale who owns a bot starts to curate content, he would be putting a ding on his/her pocket alone, and to ask that is not easy. Now if the all agree to curate content prior to upvoting it, and maybe even cap the bids, yes the cashflow would reduce, but in the long run it would probably help quality content get even more common, mass adoption and a higher price of Steem.
At least, its what seems logical to me. I will also have you know, i did have some pizza myself!! cheers mate