Exactly this. A code change doesn't make people suddenly feel an incentive to curate up or down.
Chances are if you are interested in doing those things you are already doing them.
If you are interested in staking as many coins as you can you are probably doing that.
Both things are fine, but they don't change.
While rewards curve changes don't change those basic motivations, changes I propose below in reply to the OP do. It is the ability to extract rewards that drives financial manipulation, and there is no mechanism extant to encourage funding or delegation to development of Steem and the ecosystem. I propose mechanisms to all but eliminate voting for profit rather than curation, and also to encourage investment in development.
Code is like gravity, and changing gravity to discourage profiteering while encouraging productive investment in development is possible - and highly desirable IMHO.
Thanks!