@trufflepig does a daily post showing what the trending page would look like without bidbots and self votes. This is the latest that just came out:

https://steemit.com/steemit/@trufflepig/non-bot-trending-2019-02-08

@trufflepig also does a daily post of the "best" 25 posts that did not get good rewards. So far as I know, nobody with any power looks at that one.

Presumably, if we had millions of steemers here, some of those people would be coming with money, and so the rewards pool would grow. This is the focus of a few initiatives I'm involved with that are trying to get small, medium and large business to see the value of coming here to post their social media in a place with a good alexa ranking, dapps rankings, and fanatic users.

We have some success with getting those people to invest in steem and try. Often those people get killed for one reason or another, but hope springs eternal, and action creates results.

We read a lot about what is wrong with Steem

Only if that is what you seek. Most of what I see here are wonderfully creative posts by excellent bloggers, travellers, crypto-nerds and artists.