My understanding was that the main beef was the sale of Steem by Steemit (to pay expenses) that was keeping the price low...
That much more than delegations. One could argue that delegations to apps, who are then voting is also against their rule of their stake not being used for voting - but most of those delegations are to useful projects. However, I can see the problem in that.
Yeah, me too... I'm not sure the delegations were always beneficial. I know Steemhunt were kind of thrust into the limelight before they were really ready once they received their delegation. They reacted really quickly, and I'm sure benefited immensely since, but I'm sure they would have preferred notice a week or two prior...
We'll never know of course, but I'd love to peek at what the Steem ecosystem would be like if there were no Steemit delegations to be had...