I largely agree with what you've said. I think paying witnesses half of what they are currently paid would be a good idea.
OH, and you know the people who are completely ignored? The real humans, not the bots, who are keeping this site alive. People like @mindhunter who provide real, breathing, human value to this site. Without people like him here, this site would die so fast. I guess people like him being ignored and de-valued is the result of having programmers who don't really do or understand the real human mechanisms of social media design a social media site. This is not a rub, it's just reality.