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Post rewards themselves are a sort of an indicator, maybe even better than comments, because they are quantifiable. And declined payouts produce an anomaly, because many will not waste their VP to vote on a post which has rewards declined, even if they like it.

I don't spend my VP burning Steem on such posts. I'm pretty sure those folks that seek rewards prefer my VP spent there instead.

It is exactly the power of rewards that enable Steem to provide society mechanisms to effect, not only discuss, governance. I suspect that this is exactly why Stinc doesn't rely on rewards to fund their governing of Steem, because they're governing that society for ninjaminers, and not the platform. Bad government will be poorly rewarded by such overlords, who seem to care only for their wallets. Were Stinc rationally based with intent to effect a just society, I reckon rewards would work well to fund it, but many things would be different were that the case, and none more than the ninjamine.