I agree with your sentiment on some of the current trends going on, it feels spammy, like the marketers that will sell you Instagram or Twitter followers, or maybe positive Amazon reviews. I appreciate the respect for "genuine" votes.
However I'd actually like to see a "vote for me and I'll give you stuff" system flourish in a bit different context. Since our votes do have an actual, quantifiable monetary value, I'd love to see a Patreon or KickStarter type application of voting evolve, whereby supporting an artist with votes means they'll give you "backer" rewards like in those systems.
The votes would still be genuine, as voting power is finite, and hopefully voters would only direct them towards things that they genuinely liked and wanted to support.
That's a great idea - I have discussed this with others before. A developer should definitely seize the opportunity and make a Kickstarter on the Steem blockchain. It's easily doable, as @jesta's ICO-like experiment proves.
Absolutely. I don't know any developers arms to twist. If I did I'd probably be in jail for assault thanks to all the unwanted twistings, so I guess it's for the best.
Honestly I think some refinements to a simple reporting tool would be enough to get things started. I made a post about SteeMVP which I feel has been forgotten and a system like this.
(Sorry for the post pimp, it's past payout and not meant to hijack, I swear!)