@jake
I actually wrote up a skeleton idea of a proposal that needs much work, but it is the beginnings of an idea. The principal is that incentives essentially work from teh ground up. Users are incentivized to delegate their votes, delegates are incentivized to vote, and based on these incentives delegates would earn more the more votes they control. Thus the most popular delegates should earn enough to sustain them, allowing them to focus on ENS.
Other delegates would proportionally get incentivized. They could either vote often enough to maintain control of the number of votes they control and hope users dont choose to change delegates, or they could work harder, perhaps above their compensation level, in hopes that they “move up the chain”.
Essentially the idea is that organically the participants could receive incentives based on the effort and participation they themselves put in. It also tosses an idea around about capping delegations such that a handful of users couldnt get majority control, or atleast not easily. Give it a read and let me know what you think!