If the definition of "popular" means literally "populated" and "number of people" then of course the answer is "NO" since there are so many bots, sybil accounts and farmers.  I don't think you can replace that quantity with real users as-is right now.

If by "popular" you mean "well-liked" then I think the answer is "YES" because while there would be fewer accounts, the satisfaction average would likely be higher WITHOUT the spam/bots/farmers.

degen was good for some individuals but overall bad for the quality of content on the network

tipcoins have been a very interesting experiment but i think it's clear the impact is net negative

Full-stack digital product consultant @ BoundCorp.net - eng @daylight

agree it creates a lot of slop but tipping is necessary to public and own our own content as we build the new internet

mfer & founder at /farcards and /froggies

idk about necessary, id say it's inevitable and unavoidable but i remember a world where we didn't "need" it