If zaps are how content is valued then that gives the rich inordinate power over valuing things. How am I supposed to tell if one rich person likes a post enough to zap it 1m sats or 1000 people liked it enough to zap 100 sats? Well I suppose I'll just have to read the post and decide for myself if it has any value, in which case the zaps are pretty much meaningless to the reader.

Likes aren't much better, but at least I know that they are only one user per like. I think I'd be more interested in a post that has 1k likes than one that has 1m sats because I can tell the one with the likes has a broad appeal.

Sure it costs nothing to like a post, but it also costs nothing to receive a like. You all talk about how likes give dopamine and are addictive, but ignore the fact that receiving zaps is probably a 10 times higher release of dopamine.