" There is a difference between upvoting oneself $50-200/day and being upvoted for $382 10 times/day. The jury is out if self-voting is really bad. When someone getting 5+ posts on trending a day for around $15k USD/day, it is the entire community's responsibility to look into it."

It literally only matters to whales. They get all the rewards from the pool, not the minnows. All the flags in a month return about ~5% of the rewards to the pool. There isn't a minnow on the platform that should breathe hard for a 5% increase in their largely illusory rewards.

The best thing for the platform, IMHO, would be a continuous, evenly matched, flagwar between all whales.

The minnows would have a chance at rewards. The platform would have a reason to grow, and retention would skyrocket.

Even the flaggots would make money, as the capital gains made them more wealthy than their wildest dreams.

The most likely consequence of the incessant mining of rewards into the accounts that have the most Steem, is the value of Steem going to zero, sooner or later. Whenever the stream of new accounts dries up, and new influx of n00bs isn't available to offset the loss of those that give up.