The central problem I currently see is that I can't find any reason to invest in Steem. If my perception is right, the price will keep falling and the authors won't get any rewards anyway besides some depreciating liquid Steem and depreciating Steem Power.
So from that angle, your concerns (also those voiced in the longer comment) seem secondary to me,because if problem 1 does not get fixed, there will soon be no problem 2 to discuss.
I also don't follow the flagging disputes in the english speaking community closely enough to really have an opinion. I am very reluctant to flag people, because to me ignoring is enough and I don't get why it's being used so loosely. I'm mostly active in the tiny german speaking island where we hardly ever flag each other, because we are so few and we do not yet have all the conflicts the english speaking community has. Maybe it's a good thing you hardly earn anything if you write in german, because there's less reason for envy? So unfortunately, I'm not quite sure what I could propose as a constructive solution for your concerns.
But is saddens me to read them, as you are to me one of the shining examples for what Steemit could be and it is frustrating to read, that you are frustrated.
PS:
I invest money and a lot of time and it's not for the financially insignificant (to me) rewards...
What could the developers add/change to provide the missing incentive to invest in Steem?
To me, it is crucial to get people on board who are used to paying to get attention, so advertisers/companies or market researchers (the guys paying just to get an opinion on a product). After the whole discussion here it seems so obvious to me, that I actually have a hard time imagining Ned and Dan not being aware of this and maybe (as I repeatedly said), I'm just impatient.
One thing I would like if I was a company with a marketing budget is the atmosphere here. You could get valuable feedback, because people here are much less inclined to trolling and flaming, but tend to be very constructive. So if I was some beer manufacturer and I had a new brand to introduce, I might buy some power to reward customer feedback. The reality check would be to see if people start just giving positive reviews because they hope for rewards, but the company could steer that rewarding constructive critique.