I bet curators get more thanks than abuse fighters,...although, the .258hbd that hw's paid out to me did bring a hearty chuckle and a deserved smdh.

I'm not sure how one begets the other.

When rc's have value, just maintaining a presence on layer one will be costly in some measure, ergo, incentives will be to go to the 2nd layer where things are still 'free'.

We've tried top down control, perhaps it is time that the top let that control go to more people.
Not totally, I'm not calling for powerdowns and governance abdication, but they could start by taking their hands off the user attraction pool that has a well deserved reputation for being insular and cliquish.
Even reducing their iron grip to 1000mv would help.

20 accounts take 50% of the rewards and give them to their cliques.
source
Day after day, year after year.
In perpetuity appears to be the plan.

Who plays a game where the lion's share of the spoils go to tiny fraction of the players?

We need another round trip to a dime, imo.
The power to price ratio is more likely to support distribution at a dime than at a dollar.
IF hive is to fulfill its promise of replacing fiat, it's gonna need more than a half dozen people calling the shots, and single digit thousands crabbing in the bucket.
Just the perception that this is the reality will be enough for folks to not pick up our flag and carry it.

Why would anybody trade the redshills for new crypto bosses?

Hive has to distribute broadly to succeed broadly, imo.
That has clearly been anything but the plan, at the top.
Control freaks gotta control.™

People are coming to crypto because they want to escape the bs of their fiat controllers, creating the same bs here isn't helping, iyam.
People feel powerless over fiat, when they find the same situation here, why would they go through the trouble of switching?

Is 7+ years, and millions of rejections, time enough to get a clue?
It doesn't look like it from my perspective.