The new rule is what I would have suggested too in the quest for quality Submissions.
One thing I have though is in the forming of the first part{ maybe the continuations.
The first part is where the story starts and is where the typeof story to be fold would be determined. I would want to belive that many could chose to write on diff. topics and all would still be fitting to be worthy enteries.. I could choose for example to write on Crime, another person could write on business, love, adventure, and We all would have sent in quality entries by general standards. This way, I believethere wont be a Credible basis to compare apple with apple in the selection process. So, I have three suggestions which could of cause be both both discarded if not worthy
1.) Let there be precise genre for enteries for each edition of steemshorts so that reviewers would be able to av more healthy basis of comparison.
2.) Maintain a part of the of voting procedure by allowing the reviewers choose only the top quality posts for votes. This would go a long way in still maintaining the required decentralized nature the blockchain that we are in.
3.) My last point would be a combination of the two processes. i. e. a genre is given for an episode, reviewers choose the top (quality) entries; Maybe 3 or 7 , then voters determine the rest.

Thanks