I have skimmed through the comments and did not see anyone mention delegated Steem Power. (Apologies is I missed it)
As a whale I want to see the value my stake increase. There are a few ways I can go about doing that. I can create content, I can vote and get paid curation rewards, I can play the market, or I can help increase the value of the platform as a whole and my stake will increase in value. I have opted for the last option and am letting Steem Guild and Curie use all of my Steem Power to help out new and growing authors. Yes, I get paid some curation rewards but the strategy is far from optimal if I were to maximize my return. There are many other whales doing the same thing which means that there is a lot of Steem Power behind the idea of suboptimal initial returns as a form of investment in the community. This is key!
Delegated Steem Power will allows whales to maintain ownership of their stake while transferring the privileges of holding Steem Power (and the earning potential it entails) to other accounts, particularly minnows. I am confident that the community will run with this feature and that whales will be more than willing to delegate their Steem Power for the betterment of the community.
RE: Whales - Can the community buy out a portion of your influence?