The other side is to take a look at what is working. I think Utopian.io is an example of a non-profit model that could thrive on a system like this... provided it has the proper support.
Steem is a DAO, and the voting system is broken for it's intended purpose. I agree that flagging is a huge part of the equation here that is totally broken.
We should look at what other DAO's are doing in the field. How has District0x and DAOstack Aragon approach these issues? All of them have written very interesting articles about the game theory in creating token curated registries like STEEM.
Part of the problem is there is no organized way for us to talk about these things. As others have said there is a lot of shouting, but not so much getting done.
Please give me the links to the articles you believe are relevant. It is impossible to follow every single blockchain project.
Ok these are articles from projects that are just now entering mainnet. Their main difference from steem being they are platforms preparing to enable groups to set up a huge range of DAOs, including steem style registries. I think these articles are relevant and might help you in the direction you going.
On token curated registries
https://medium.com/@ilovebagels/token-curated-registries-1-0-61a232f8dac7
Grading content on a TCR with up and down votes:
https://medium.com/@sebastian.gajek/graded-token-curated-decisions-with-up-downvoting-designing-cryptoeconomic-ranking-and-2ce7c000bb51
Daostack article on decentralized governance
https://medium.com/daostack/decentralized-governance-first-principles-1fc6eaa492ed
"What community governance actually entails"
https://blog.aragon.one/aragon-will-be-community-governed-5069ed8d0a33
Thread on governance algorithms:
https://reddit.com/comments/4rtpmm
These articles are from:
Argon - their "newspaper" is here (https://monthly.aragon.one/news/aragon/)
Daostack
District0x - another project to look at