Allowing votes to be counted for reward no matter the time it was posted would be the logic thing to do, after all your work is still being used, shouldn't you be reward for it? Lets face it, without enough "screening" time, be a new user that have never seen the post, or people that did not got the chance in the seven day grace period, the author will have to make the same post each week over and over again, to get something of the work he has already done before, this is a bad way of building thing if you have to do it all over again each week (There is also the followers earned for the post, but this leaving this to chance and it will not work out in the long run)

How much time is enough? If one people having all the money is the problem, then, lets go the socialist route, after a seven day period, each vote submitted to a post, will go to everyone, that is to say, each post will be Steemit-humanity legacy for everyone. That would make, that the more post there are, the better, so we can start building something, everyone will be reward for it (and if you want to, you can add a few conditions, so everyone is not a freeloader, you are free to so), in the long run humans will benefit from the work of past humans (like we always do). (this is just an idea, and everyone is free to give their own ideas, i am just using in how the patented work is used, option b, everyone can used it to their benefit, but this don't resolve the issue what the author would have do next week)

Merry Christmas everyone.