yes I think 10 votes are a bit to few also. I think 20 would be better and 100 a bit much since you can still scale your votes.

Well I mean this is still up to us or the minnows themselves right, if they want to curate or upvote themselves. And if you dont invest anything you cant be mad that you cant have all what the people have who are invested.
The more you risk the bigger your reward.

I dont agree with 3 word comments which get 80$ also. But nobody can stop them doing that. I think there are 3 kind of people here
-1 the minnows who start from nothing or next to nothing
imo they should not care about their votes too much anyways and more on commenting, making connections
also they have nothing at stake so they cant complain too much if they dont get too much but as they engage and grow they get more and more so instead of money they have to invest time and effort

-2 the people who are invested and willing to put in work to create followers and engage with the community
as I see it they are risking something, they have their money in the system for at least 3 month and putting in work, which should be rewarded

-3 people who are invested and just want a passive income but no real interest to build up or engage with the community
those are maybe the 3 words 80$ people not engaging but still risking something which will also deserves a reward

This is propaply too simplified but I hope you see were I am coming from( it is almost 1pm here and I am getting tired ;-) ).

But it is a system were everybody gets what he deserves I feel. Of course great content gets overlooked everyday but thats were consistency kicks in.
In the end you are free to vote on whatever you want and I think there will never be a solution were everybody will be happy.

Tbh I dont have a real solution to that. For myself I feel the fork felt very rewarding but of course the whales still hold the power as they are the biggest stakeholders. It is still a company after all in a way.