I want to believe Hive is better than this. I am not naïve and I know as soon as money enters a system, corruption follows. But I had thought and hoped that the people attracted to Hive might be more morally upstanding and not give in so easily.

Not to mention that it also undermines the efforts of those who sincerely campaigned to get votes for Splinterlands proposal.

Absolutely! I wasn't voting on the Splinterlands proposal because I share @engrave (and others) questions about the lack of details. Not to mention the entire proposal reads as a threat to me. That may because it was badly written, but there it is. Regardless, even if I had been supporting it, seeing this kind of old boy network politics would make me instantly remove my support.