Quite a controversy you sparked over here. Well done. Given that articles are promoted based on their value, instead of just the votes they receive, I will repeat my suggestion.
Keep the reward system as is at the moment, since I have nothing better to propose. Just change the article promotion system, so that only the votes an article received count. This way, although an article may not receive rewards, it may reach the top if upvoted by too many people, regardless of their status.
There is a trade off involved in having "whales" concept. Their demand for steem & sbd tokens adds value.
Finally, I would like to see, if possible, a bot free steemit in terms of voting. This is a real issue.