A 255-comment nesting limit, no 4-post/day penalty, independent comment payouts
These are backward steps in the right direction. So not pointless, but not the same as progress.
I understand the resistance to limitations for external applications. But Steem will not be applicable to everything. By trying to make it so we limit progress as we stand at crossroads never taking any direction. It was intended to be a social media platform. We can either accept that or come to a consensus on an alternative. Do you think we would ever reach that consensus so far into the game?
Claiming that separating the reward pool limits applications is also no more true than posts being inherently different from comments on the blockchain already does. There is already limitations that any app developer would have to work around, perhaps by disabling comments and using posts only. The reward pool makes absolutely no difference to their ability to build.
To make that claim please provide an example of what you imagine and then let us determine if the separated reward pools would really hinder it.
I also remember you at the forefront against removing that portion of curation rewards, which made the implementation easily gamed.
Once again steem can't be everything, if we try to make it everything it won't ever be anything.
Experience has proven
Experience suggests, it alone rarely proves anything.
If Steem is left open, progress can be made on the application level. Please see my and @smooth's [indirect] reply to @edje's comment above.
This is true. Specifically rate limiting of comment replies vs. posts. But there isn't any reason to make more hurdles, first of all. Second, arbitrarily changing the basic rules of rewards distribution does not make an inviting platform. I'll point again to the replies to @edje above.
I agree that curation rewards on a separate comment pool are a bad idea. I touch upon it in the fourth paragraph. And further, removing any more curation rewards thus eroding SP earning potential should be avoided as well. It's not mentioned in this post because it's a non-factor. The separate comment pool, as it is in v0.17.0, has curation rewards.
These things considered, both having and not having curation rewards for a divided reward pool aren't good options.