...do you mean something other than the upvote percentage...
I would suggest removing all rewards for number of upvotes as well as curation rewards. Replace all these timed and manipulated voting and reward systems with a tipping button that is tied to a stable coin on the HIVE blockchain.
A tipping button may seem duplicative, since one can simply send a favorite content creator some HIVE directly with a public message about enjoying the writer's content. However, PeakD has improved the idea and correctly guessed the appropriate social aspect of a tipping button. Their button shows the users who have tipped... and the tip value is stable at 0.990 HIVE. This fixes most the problem.
Brave's BAT ecosystem works a little better by adding the ability to tip in three set values of BAT. However, BAT is missing the social approval aspect.
An ideal system would allow an arbitrary tip sent in a stable coin and publicly recorded at the location of the content.
Good content is written because people want to share.
Poor content is written because people want to manipulate the voting system.
The same is true of other and older reward systems for creating and sharing content and ideas... the patent system and copyright systems are broken in a similar way. The idea that people will only be willing to share if paid to do so is faulty.
Is an economy that is solely based on the participants of a social media platform (and no outside investors) voting and trading with each other sustainable without a steady addition of users who want to buy in and stake?
Unfortunately, in social media platforms, those who run the platform should be separate from those who utilize the platform. This does not mean that those who run the system should participate in the system. Rather, it means that two separate systems of rewards are needed. Those who run the system should not be able to manipulate the content creation rewards.
Two coins, two separate reward systems.
The rewards for staking HIVE should be tied to platform metrics. The rewards for content creation should be tied to reader satisfaction. One coin can not span both reward systems.
To be clear though, I don't think that people will only be willing to share if paid to do so. I think that they'd be more willing to share on a platform where they share in the revenue created by the platform. On YouTube that happens because they are attracting additional viewers which generate that revenue. That additional willingness leads to a competitive environment that spawns extremely well-produced content. Seemingly, only as an act of revolt (OR as a risky, speculative investment, with you betting that the crypto would go higher) might other, equally well-produced content appear here, since the financial incentive (aside from revolting against 'the powers that be' (google, facebook, etc.)) is greater (or at the very least more stable) on other platforms. Most people care more about a better life for their families and so will make informed financial decisions to the best of their ability to move them toward that better life.
People can also tip on sites like YouTube, Twitch, etc.; but advertisers will pay for the eyeballs that are attracted, something that doesn't occur here unless the eyeballs attracted decide to pay you with their own money. Whereas they get YouTube content for free and the only thing they'd pay for (not including if they tip) would be if they like a physical or digital product that is being sold by an advertiser, in which case they get something in ADDITION to the content, rather than paying for the content itself.
Which leaves viewers with a pretty easy decision (unless they are again acting out of revolutionary idealism):
As it currently stands, at the very least, Hive and Steemit are both so far and away below the levels of performance of YouTube and other Social Media teams (reasons for that are many, but obviously a huge team and financial backing for the other ones allows for more performant systems) that unless there is much better content on here, I don't see the masses flocking here (of course, I could be very wrong about that due to something I'm missing and of course if the performance and content quality hits the modern day standard, that could change as well).
They for sure will need some incentive to come here, as viewers. Note, that I'm just referring to how it currently stands, not necessarily how it would land if your resolution proposal was implemented! :)
I appreciate you adding to this discussion though. It is good to see that some people believe the problem can be resolved and I appreciate you proposing a resolution!
I'm on the fence about whether it can be fixed, but your points for sure seem like they'd be a step in the right direction!