Yes, I'm glad we align in our view that using a bit of the inflation to pay an amount to mitigate inflation is pretty inefficient.
I think we both recognize that rewards on this platform has to revolve around creating, discovering, curating, maintaining good content and the platform/s necessary for such actions. Other forms of arbitrary rewards like a direct pro rate inflation of currency, or a random lottery that are not directly promoting those above effects are probably sub optimal.
You make a strong argument that the balance between authorship and curation is too skewed to the author at an effective rate of 88%. I am inclined to agree here. My initial instinct is that 50/50 would be a little too heavy on the curators side and perhaps insufficient motivation for authors to create quality content, and maybe something close to a 75/25 effective split would be closer to the mark.
Having discussed it in chat however, it appears I'm in the minority here and that most ppl would rather see a stronger balance towards curation more in line with what you've suggested. Perhaps my lack of experience and authorship bias is compromising my judgement here, as it is sort of an initial gut instinct. Either way I do agree it needs to go down from 88%
As for steemit,inc I feel that they do work hard and Steem's success is heavily dependent on them for the foreseeable future. I've already put forward my case as strongly as possible, but it is quite reasonable to remain unpersuaded.
Ultimately real growth lies from a well functioning streamlined platform/s with easily accessible top quality content. This requires talent that's willing to create that content, people willing to discover and make that content more accessible, and developers to make and improve the platform. The incentive balance we eventually get probably won't satisfy everyone perfectly, but hopefully satisfies most people sufficiently, and on point enough to lead a bright future for Steem
Thanks for sharing your thoughts @ats-david, I enjoy your posts