hm i was considering buying steem to give more visibility to my posts, but if you want to remove self-vote then this incentive to buy steem disappears...and the whole attention economy collapses.
even if you increase the curator rewards (could be a good idea) very few will buy steem to be curators as very few have time for it.
also self-vote will still be done by proxy bots.
as long as people self-vote genuine posts that took time to write I don't see a problem (they paid by buying steem to get the attention) but it's another matter when they automate self votes towards spam bots.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@simoneighties/welcome-bot-proxy-self-vote-abuse-in-introduceyourself
this is clear abuse yet nothing is being done about it .
In any case the Steemit team needs to define the rules of the game once and for all, or it is difficult for Investors to enter the market without knowing exactly what steem can be used for. there's an hardfork around the corner every month with rule changes and the investor never knows where he stands . And without the investor this platform dies. The investor is never mentioned in these discussions. yet its the most important aspect in keeping Steem alive
my personal feed is where i find the information i'm interested in, while I know the trending page will always be dominated by capital (i rarely look at it, and when i do just to see how much ppl are making)
by increasing curation rewards maybe better content will make the trending page, but i wouldn't count on it. worth a try though.