"Give me an example of a business that is both good for the ecosystem and whose success depends on Steem itself to not function as a proof of brain content discovery and rewards token. Or give me an example of a project which would bring value to Steem whose prospects are hindered by Steem's ability to function as a content discovery token. I can't really think of any but I'm open to the possibility."

The reason this is true is because the incentives are misaligned. Any curation rewards are simply additive to corrupting curation for maximizing financial extraction, a la @therealwolf. Only providing a mechanism that financially encourages development and improvement of Steem better than rewards pool rape will change his behaviour. Tweaking rates will not do that, without adding another more profitable mechanism.

We need to focus investment on capital gains, not extracting gains from working capital intended to market Steem. Capital gains have worked to grow industry for literally thousands of years. Let's use that to our advantage.