Hey @krnel, glad to see you here. I've been reading your witness server tutorials and they were quite informative!
And to what you just wrote:
I don't look at the trending page, ever. Not once since I came back. It's the same deal as it was in the summer of 2016, winter of 2017, summer of 2017. It's always the same: mostly crap.
You are correct. How many upvotes or how much rewards a post receives, says nothing about the quality of that post and even less about how important it is for yourself.
But I'm pretty sure that communities will change a lot.
And honestly - when people say that it takes too long for it to be implemented - why don't they help SteemitInc to develop it?
How will communities change a lot? They will have two choices, issue their own coin to sell FOR STEEM, with the main possible investors being the same whales gaming the system now, or continue to draw from the same rewards pool. If you read the white and blue papers and even listen to Ned's latest talks, he constantly makes reference to the quality of the content? Why? Because the quality of the content ESPECIALLY content that is internally promoted, is the value of the site, and the underlying value of steem itself.