That this comment is high on Trending signals loudly that something's awry with Steem's reward allocation protocols. What a shocker, I know. In my opinion, this content is more valuable than those above it, which are mostly either Steem circlejerk or far-right conspiracy trash. The only consumable (though mediocre) content appears to be self-voted (by themselves or representing a group) by a whale.

That's fair but IMO this is more a question of whether the Trending page is really implemented and featured in an ideal manner, and perhaps having this 'content' there is a way to drive home the point.

It is entirely possible that this is the 4th most "value-contributing" content item (after considering time weighting), even if not the 4th most interesting to read or feature. Of course, people can disagree on that too, but it is a different question from whether value paid (or in this case burned) should be used to determine featured visibility status.

BTW, I consider downvotes of @burnpost content to be entirely legitimate and proper. Stakeholders who feel more should be allocated to burning and those who feel less should be allocated to burning (as well as visibility effects) have equally legitimate say in the matter. The resulting consensus should determine the amount burned.