For the long term viability of the platform I couldn't agree more - readers are crucial.
Now for lowering their expectations... Time spent on creation and quality of output does not equal rewards at this stage and that's the big issue currently. Will enough power users, whales or whatever we choose to call them decide that the long term gains outweigh the short term ones? Let's see.
In the real world it usually doesn't work. You can have billionaire philanthropists spending all their money on issues, but if the underlying problems are not fixed on a systemic level, the issues don't disappear, they are just somewhat mitigated.
And that is what we are witnessing right now with various interests of power users being played out - Long versus short term gains.
"Not everyone really wants to write a lot. But almost everyone can enjoy good writing, and tell their friends about it"
Exactly, that's that other part of the equation necessary for mainstream adoption if a user fails to monetize their own contributions. That's why it is so crucial to surface the very best content.