I think part of the problem here, is that whilst there are many projects worthy of delegation, it might be hard for most of them to attract the attention they deserve from those with enough power to delegate.
You hit the nail on the head here I think.
The question then becomes, how to curate a project to curate the best projects, bringing them to the attention of whales willing to invest? But that project would itself need to attract the attention of some whales. Breaking out of that catch22 would be the important step such a project would need to bridge. Probably after it has proved functional with smaller delegations.
On a positive note @jerrybanfield has launched his growth proposal, he also outlines many other initiatives in his post linked above. There is also another project @steem-bounty.
Nothing seems to have attracted the attention of the big delegators like the top 5 or 6 projects we all know about. I ask myself why is this and I cannot find a good answer.
Delegation is an investment. How do you compete for this investment and how do you attract these big whales in 2018? I would love if someone would shed some light on this for me.