I think if all formal abuse fighting systems stopped then the reward pool would be actively taken by those that could. I do not think the whales or the large Orca accounts would be the ones to take advantage, However I do think that some of the mid level Orca accounts would. There are those that see the reward pool as a never ending gob-stopper, or a golden goose.

There is very little that the formalized abuse teams can do to those mid level Orca accounts, they just do not have the poser available to make much of a dent. Removing the Formal Abuse Accounts would be the end of reward pools ability to reward new and smaller accounts.

If the Formal Accounts can only cause minor irritation to the mid level Orca accounts smaller accounts are not going to be able to do a thing at all about them. If the down vote system was changed where a down vote could be targeted then the smaller accounts would actually have the power to attempt to control abuse, also the ability of the Formal Accounts to control abuse would become much more effective.

Spam and iffy type content is not the real problem of abuse on Hive, I believe the real problem is the Entitlement Attitude that the larger accounts hold. "It is my stake, if I want to only take from the reward pool I can".

One day the down vote system may be fixed, until then for small accounts to down vote is pretty risky when it comes to reward abuse.