Hi, thanks for your responds @trafalgar.

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

I can't give you proof of an actual business that decided not to come here, or said that they are hindered by Steem's ability to function. How should I know that? I don't run a business and I have no insight in other businesses books.
But it's clear, that the current Reward System has some fundamental problems that are effecting everyone alike e.g. Users, Investor, Businesses, the perception of Steem in general etc...
I think you gave to yourself the best answer on this point...here is your quote.
"If we wait for SMTs and Communities on a broken system, when our front page is in disarray due to spam, bid bots and self votes and our alexa and cmc rankings are dropping steadily, how realistic is it to expect businesses built over this rotting core be able to garner the legitimacy and confidence required to only thrive itself but completely turn this place around? You're far more likely to get a few just extracting the dwindling value of this place and then moving on to greener pastures."

The reverse is much more likely to be true: a working content discovery and rewards platform with a functioning front page will greatly attract real users and investors. This user base can then in turn be leveraged by businesses built using SMTs and Communities which will in turn bring more value to the system as a whole.

I agree, but in order to achieve that we need Admins for communities who set in rules and fight Bid Bots, abuses etc... All the good stuff about POB should happen within the communities, where there is some sort of guidance for the users, or even if some communities wish no guidance. The point here is that we need competition thru out the Frontends on a plain level field where all communities have the same access to the Steem Ressources aka. Steempower and Reward Pool. Thats why I would like to see Steem as an almost "pure" infrastructure Token (Voting for Witnesses, Voting on Worker Proposals and Voting on Dapps or Communities and SMTs or SteemEngine as the POB layer where Users create and curate for content.

With the Steem economy how it is currently, voting rewards are predictably used as staking returns or payment, which is precisely how they should not be used. Profit minded businesses using voting rewards in lieu of transfer are far more likely to extract value from the system than contribute any real value themselves. And it's not their fault - we simply have the wrong economic incentives in place.

I totally agree.

The underlying economy of Steem must be fixed. They're a higher priority than anything else and require far less investment, but they're the only change that can turn this place around and infuse value to every other endeavor we pursue (SMTs, communities, marketing etc.)

My suggestion has only that in mind to make Steem on a fundamental level more easy to understand and to handle so that the complexity of the POB mechanism can thrive within the different Dapps and Communities.