I'm not suggesting we replace one for the other. I'm suggesting adding features that will empower creators as well as provide new opportunities for developers.

However, direct payment is inefficient and not really viable for content creation and curation. The value of most content is so low relative to the cognitive, financial, and opportunity costs associated with making a payment that few readers choose to tip.

This is demonstrably false. Twitch, youtube, Patreon, these are all businesses that have donation mechanisms and they're extremely successful. It doesn't matter that the content is free, people want to support their favorite content creators and they do. This isn't a thing we need to debate about, it's just a fact. Steem is bigger than just articles. Maybe that's the sort of thing that people would have trouble getting donations for in the past, but honestly I haven't ever seen it attempted in a way that's actually user friendly and straightforward. It's probably out there, but I've never seen it.

Again, a paywall wouldn't be a replacement for our current system, just additional tools for authors. It would be up to the author to decide what to give away for free and what to charge for. Again, to say that this doesn't work is ridiculous because it's exactly what people are doing on Patreon today. With all their drama Patreon is still doing MUCH better than us.

Now if it's a technical limitation of a transparent blockchain that's another matter, but I think a solution could be worked out people really wanted it, which I think they would.