I mean, I think it gets down to what we value in a witness. The whole thing is "vote for witnesses, vote for witnesses" but truth be told, it would require like 350 million sbd for us to vote another witness to the top 19. They own the shares of this company. And with the self vote feature of the witness pool, there is no way to get to the top unless you've got that amount of money in steem power. The top 19 go to the board meetings and make the decisions about the hard forks on here. Or veto the ones ned proposes. They are the ones who decide how to become a top 19 witness, for example. And how to stay there. It's a bit of a circle jerk.
It doesn't mean they aren't capable of doing an amazing job. They all got there on merit (and money). They have all done amazing things for the platform. But some people are complaining that only a few of them are actually doing legitimate things for the platform and deserve to stay on top. The rest of them are either towing the line, or telling people how to do so.
I propose the second level witnesses get a little more pay to compensate them for all the hard work they do. These guys are the backbone of this place. Without them, it would not be a pretty place. Obviously it would be great if other witnesses could viably get to the top, but honestly, none of them are even trying. They are all just in it to jockey for 21 and on. I think 20 gets like $1,100 a week. Not terrible if it's worth $3 USD right now. But even still, top 19 earn $5,000 per week. Huge jump even from 19 to 20. And it's not a slight curve as you go down. It's an instant drop to the death.
I say either let lower witnesses validate more blocks, or let them get more for the ones they do. I'd prefer just validating more blocks, because the lower witnesses -- a lot of them anyway -- are more likely to be running nodes not just for the blocks, but seed nodes and external server nodes as well. So they create a better experience all around. I could go on...and on....