Heya @streetstyle,
I can definitely agree with you on the fact that this reward pool abuse is discouraging newer accounts, and showing many that it doesn't matter to play by "the rulez". I found one of my favorite artists @jcleff in the new section, and she is talented c:
I think it really does come down to doing our own part in keeping Steemit clean, but starting small- I am flagging spam comments on my posts. Other than joining flagging parties, I am thinking about encouraging creating better content.
Mahalo,
@shello