There is no second thought on the main suggestion. I fully support it. We have to give minnows and dolphins a chance. Your suggestion gives that chance. It also opens up new opportunities for curators.

The classification does need discussion. I have reservation over the number of followers because it is not a good indicator. Two people having 1000 SP have equal influence but the same two people having 1000 followers do not have equal opportunity.

1000 followers may be any people on Steemit. Half of them even be dead or inactive. One person may have people with good SP as followers but the other one may be having people with very low SP.

I would like to highlight my own example. I do a lot of educational work regarding Steemit so most of my followers are newbies with less than 10 SP of their own.

I think a better indicator would be the total amount of SP of all the followers. That still won't account for who is active and who isn't. I think this criteria would also fail.

We should use some acceptable standard alongwith the SP. You are right. The matter needs discussion. Interesting to see what you come up with.