But how can we build a place where both exist?

Just an idea, very rough & maybe not perfect:

• New users, under rep 40 or so, are enabled to earn rewards from the pool
• Users with rep higher than 40 but less than 60 can earn from the pool, but it is disabled on posts by default (and you'll need to manually check to accept pool earnings)
• Users with rep over 60 are banned from the pool, and must rely on tips from their readers
• As for comments, maybe they're all enabled for the rewards pool (to help encourage engagement), but their capped at only being able to earn $5 or something like that

This plan, again, is not perfect, but I can see it being an interesting take on the current situation. It allows newcomers time & resources to build up a fanbase, it gives a buffer to people to warn them they're about to lose pool-access & should start thinking about how they are going to remain sustainable in the near future, and it gives whales less influence on the dwindling shared rewards pool, instead shifting their focus on long-term sustainable business models (are you going to include ads in your blogs? start up a dapp business venture? maybe include some sort of STEEM-based paywall for certain content?)

I don't mean to sound egotistically, but I seriously think that this discussion is incredibly worth having. Steem is broken, we shouldn't just sit & whine, we should continue pushing in new changes & hardforks until something "clicks". We're still early enough in the Steem timeline where the method of "throwing shit at the wall & seeing what sticks" is a legit valid option we should be doing.