We meet again @plushzilla, and I hope this is a good sign for our future collaborations!  While you dig into the trend also please consider the speed of change; because there is an issue as to whether it is fast enough.

More generally, thank you for an eye-opening post.  I wish I had the time to show you another side of this 'not pretty' picture. It is a collection of payouts that are large and which make no sense unless you bring into scope the idea that some powerful people "love these gals/guys". 

Since I don't have the time give several examples (there is no shortage of them), I will leave you with two.  A famous YouTuber arrived here and on his very first post, almost all of which was about introducing himself,  he got $15,000+ SBDs as payment for content whose 'green quotient', on a scale of 0 to 10, was about 1! 

Second example: there are some of YouTubers with large YouTube followings, which means they're already getting paid by Google, and they bring their videos over here, adding little or no ‘green’ content, and yet they are consistently getting impressive payouts.

As I said, not a pretty picture!

Please allow me to add the following relevant general comment, as a newbie here, having joined about six weeks ago. In support of this comment I wish to observe that I now have more than 300 posts or comments, and anyone looking at my comments will see that I consistently make an effort to put some 'green content' into my comments. A substantial part of my reading is in the area of issues upon which your post touches, and my general feeling right now (and "feeling" is the right word) is that Steemit is a wide open and welcoming society for free communications and helpful acquaintances; but it is a virtually closed society so far as the "SBD payout game" is concerned. My feeling is that those of us newbies who want to be happy at Steemit should ignore this game and look for other rewards in this society.

I know this remark will make powerful people here angry; but here is why it is reasonable advice. The concentration and the main sources of great power are such that we are not going to get the powerful to walk away from their power any time soon.  Thus, we minnows had better try to have fun at Steemit in ways that don’t involve paying attention to that game; because it so frustrating.

Most interestingly, the marketing mantra that you most often see about Steemit is the following: "come for the rewards and stay for the company". I wonder if the person who composed this mantra realizes that it is a tacit admission that the reward system is broken. In a recent interview on YouTube our famous @Dan used the word "abused" in referring to the system.