The developers don't care what users want or about trying to make it better for them, this has been demonstrated over and over again. Simply creating a Tip button would have retained tens of thousands of users, yet to this day that request is still ignored.
Your marketplace idea is the key to sucess. But there can be no marketplace in a forum where the developers have DISABLED edit/delete and reply to posts only 30 days old. They recently removed an additional 10 days of edit/delete and replies even after people spoke up about it, now you only get conversation for 20 days before your posts are locked and useless. This is not smart or business friendly. It was designed to force users to work harder and produce more content, (that insiders and their bots profit from).
They are farming your content and clicks, not trying to create a working ecosystem. This next SDB "change" being promoted by cheerleaders and sockpuppets is designed to get their investment out before the changed powerdown rules destroy the rest of the value. Watch who pushes the SBD removal, and watch who will benefit the most from the change. (Hint: it will be witnesses and original instamine owners, not the users producing content and apps for the ecosystem)
Every major change lately seems like they are destroying core features in their mad scramble to get their profit out before it fails (just like bitshares).
Thats too bad...I guess it all depends on whether @ned and @dantheman (as well as the other developers) decide to sell themselves (their soul lives on in their work) for immediate profit rather than innovating an actual escape route from economic slavery for many in poverty...in the end we will see what happens.