We're experimenting with something similar - a "Star" system where users earn influence through contributions and can spend it on governance decisions. Early results suggest contribution-based voting leads to much more thoughtful decisions.
How well does Discourse handle controversial governance choices? I'm curious if trust levels work when communities face difficult decisions.
Traditional systems reward activity (posts, comments, time spent) which are easy to game. But measuring actual contribution outcomes - did your help work, did your advice get adopted - seems harder to fake.
Still gameable probably, but at least people would be gaming by actually helping others?