Here's a simple fix.
Remove trending, replace it with promoted.
Allow us to burn steem when running ads / promoted, let ads float to the top based on how many steem are burned by the ad. Set self promoted posts to auto-decline payouts and instead burn the steem directly.
Do that and steem and steemit become juggernauts.
This is actually a really interesting idea.
We've avoided the ads route, for obvious reasons, but this is a far more ethical way of doing it.
I don't see how this would lead us to market adoption (it doesn't solve the fundamental problem of Steemit as a social platform) but I could see it being a feature worth discussing. Do send me a message on Steemit.chat. :)
It leads to market adoption because it reduces the supply of steem thereby driving the price in dollar terms of steem up. This increases the size of the rewards pool in dollar terms. Each person would then earn more per post. The increase in rewards would lead to more users and more importantly, more active users.
Advertisers would buy steem because when push comes to shove, the demographic of this place is an advertiser's wet dream.
As soon as we get the crowdsourcing protocols out there, I'd love to see this in a proposal. It sounds like you have a clear conception of how this could work, which deserves to be shared around.
Please keep this idea in mind, because it's sounds like something worth trying.