Great post, Sean. Just as you mentioned in the comments on my post, seeing Steemit as a competing corporation does shed some light on how the value of Steem Power should trend towards those who use that power in their own self-interest which aligns with the interest of the whole network.

I do wonder, though, if you trust a bit too much in the rational action of those involved. You take it as a given that people will flag those who abuse the system with self-voting combined with meaningless comments, but I think what has started this conversation is that many haven't been doing this. They don't want to get involved in flag wars and they don't want to waste their now precious voting power to go around flagging comment abuse with self-upvoting. I'm talking about the "Great post!" comment making $50+. To flag those comments is, in many ways, an altruistic gesture which few people will see in terms of long-term protection of their investment unless their investment comes under real threat.

There's also the issue of new user adoption to consider. Steem isn't just a cryptocurrency. It's also a growing social media platform which needs to grow exponentially in order to thrive. If new users see people upvoting their own comments to receive large rewards while they only get a few cents working on long posts, they often leave and consider this place a scam. You address this in your post and in the comments here with somewhat of a "well, good riddance we don't need them anyway" perspective, and you may be right. But... I think the long term value of Steemit isn't just in the cryptocurrency, but it's also in the growth of the network effect the social platform itself provides. Ideally, both need to grow together. If actions are seen by many as selfish, unfair, scammy, ponzi, etc, etc that can have a longterm effect on the reputation of the platform which can impact investors negatively.

The price has gone down since HF19, but so has the entire altcoin market. I'm not sure a correlation there is causation.

I think your views are important and accurate and a good balance to those who think in black and white concerning what should and should not be allowed. I also think it sheds light on a very large ideological discussion between capitalist and socialist thinking which is so deeply ingrained for many people that they won't understand or appreciate the opposing views any time soon.