I’ll be frank: all DAOs struggle with voter apathy, concentration of voting power, and DAOs have become a source of funds for professional delegates to reap off.
The best the DAO could do at first, is to build a community of DAO delegates who understand how the protocol works.
However, delegation is a time consuming but important task. I think a payment for delegates is fair and the proposed budget is not big at all.
Those who say that the budget is big might underestimate the importance of a DAO. A strong DAO is your strongest community and a guardian of security. Remember how Compound DAO got attacked, just because delegates wouldn’t care to vote?
But I believe that why now is the time to invest in building a solid foundation. If we wait until there are more proposals and more activity, it will be too late to onboard capable delegates and establish a reliable governance culture. We’ll be stuck playing catch up.
Tbh, most DAOs start very centralized (as team and foundation control the most VP). If we can speed up the decentralization from the start, it is a great decision.
And, incentives should not be distributed purely in proportion to voting power. Instead, we should design mechanisms that reward diverse opinions and meaningful contributions from delegates, this is how a healthy governance ecosystem grows.