Vote selling and buying are a result of the poor distribution of Steem.
I actually agree with many of your points. One thing I would like to point out is Vote Buying is a bit of an equalizer in getting something noticed which goes against popular opinion.
Twitter and Facebook both offer paid promotion services
I enjoyed reading your thoughts, I personally think it will all play out.
Discussing it is part of letting it play out. :)
For which there's a clear solution that I mention - delegated curation to curators.
It could work, but up until now, it has been a circle jerk of giving too few people too much money and people within the circle they already support.
There are many ways it could play out and it is a hot topic this week. Next week... ?
My opinion is the current atmoshere is a function of the actions of those who control the steem. When they behave differently, the money will go to different places.
Why is vote buying on shit posts more offensive than the trending list? No reason that I can think of. :)
That's the whole point of this post. To appeal to stakeholders to invest in good curators and not vote buying services and other circlejerk.