The problem is, that the improvements regarding the trending page are subjective and that too many people were thrown under the bus. And not only people, but stakeholders.
With bid-botting, the difference was that most people buying votes, were simply doing it to generate more money and to sell it. Most of those users weren't big stakeholders, mainly leeches to get the most out of the reward pool, so it's fine if they're gone.
On the other hand, whether someone thinks @slowwalker's, @broncnutz's and others behaviour is appropriate for the platform, is subjective and opinionated. And I find it to be a very dangerous game to force stakeholders to have a certain belief. "Either you stop upvoting your friends, or we're going to burn your rewards to the ground". This mindset is harming the bond between stakeholders, which should normally be as positive and neutral as possible. With Bitcoin, Ethereum and most other coins, there's just one direction: forwards. But on Steem, it's super opiniated.
And if I were to be treated like @slowwalker, I would wonder whether my stake in Steem is appreciated enough. If it were an SMT, he could simply sell it and buy another SMT, all based on Steem. But with the main currency, he is forced to either adapt or to sell it for bitcoin/another altcoin.
I agree with what you're saying but I am not in the reward pool being taken away and forcing SMTs to be the only PoB on Steem. I will make a video explaining my thoughts better then I can in the comments. But you are exactly right at naming the issues, I just think the solution, while sounds great on paper, I don't think will work well in practice.
Now, if we are talking about removing the reward pool down the line, as the inflation shrinks and SMTs will be forced to step up. But I am not a fan of removing it until both SMTs are mature, and the reward pool inflation has become so low, that people are naturally forced into using SMTs more.
I understand your point and removing one of the key strength of Steem at this time is not the correct move. However, I think we're under-selling the passive inflation and we should increase the incentive for people to stake their Steempower. In the best case, with a dynamic staking period and increasing potential APR. (https://medium.com/@bytemaster/blockchain-governance-proposal-470478e42686)
I was looking over Dan's proposal. Was wanting to get thoughts from Steem witnesses on it. I don't agree with all of it but there may be so useful things we can pick at for Steem.