I agree with you and I'm a whale. You got to be really shortsighted to not see the value in using some of the inflation to fund developement.
The claim that re-allocating this money will hurt investors is again very narrow minded.
Funding is key, it's what make or break a project. A funding mechanism would add incredible value to the steem blockchain. Besides, most crypto don't pay 'dividends' at all so steem would still rewards its investors far greater than other cryptos via curation rewards.
Your idea was discussed way back then already https://steemit.com/steemit/@trafalgar/a-problem-in-the-economics-of-steemit