I understand your point but the economics of SN are the only thing that sets it apart, both in marketing terms and in actual functional terms, for it's the mechanism that disciplines its content, regardless of how many assmilkers. I think it's an error to hide the one thing SN stands out about. Without it, it would be exactly like Hacker News, hence providing zero reason to not to use Hacker News instead. Indeed that's literally in the current slogan: "It's like Hacker News, but we pay you in Bitcoin". If we abstract the essentials away it will do more harm than good.