>However, I'm not sure how projects like @utopian-io and other open-source projects would function without delegation being there...

They would function just like other projects that have functioned on Steem/Steemit without delegation for the past year and a half. They can provide updates with posts, receive donations from those who want to support them, have other accounts trail their votes, buy STEEM to power up...there are many options. 

I know that delegation *can* be good, but it unfortunately creates far too much "bad" in an environment that does *not* include enough people willing to counter the "bad." So if the community as a whole proves to be inadequate in mitigating the "bad," then revert to prior protocols that didn't allow the avenue for abuse/exploitation/whatever you want to call it, then find a new/better solution...*if* there truly is a problem that needs to be resolved in the first place. 

For every bit of good that delegation *may* do when given to good curators, we get two or more situations like this - and the latter seems to be increasing.

https://steemit.com/steem/@transisto/whales-witnesses-we-have-to-talk