@dantheman, have you considered the idea of lending SP from the whales to the dolphins?
A whale could lend some of his SP (and take it back any time he wants) to a high-reputation dolphin and let her do some of the curation on his behalf. The curation rewards could be then split equally between the dolphin and the whale.
Dan actually did a post on this yesterday:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@dantheman/follow-up-to-people-rank-algorithm-for-better-curation-rewards
That was my understanding of this post he wrote the other day
i thought of this also while i was driving, even before seeing your post. I was thinking of loans in order to help curation and spread rewards around better. It would be voluntary, of course, based on trust. And it could be revoked by the whale at any time.