Feel free to suggest.

As the last few moves SS has made have been to reduce contributor earnings in select areas, I can't see why they would say yes. As long as they get all the content they want at the rates they currently offer, as a public company, they're unlikely to do squat to nurture their contributor base.

My words, not theirs, but I'd view their current strategy as to do the absolute minimum necessary to keep the content coming in. See their current library size:

"SHUTTERSTOCK STATS: 90,938,201 royalty-free stock images / 967,366 new stock images added this week"

Some good portion of the 967,366 is complete crap - I think this bulking up is part of their attempt to keep Adobe Stock at bay - but there's plenty of saleable stuff as well.

If you want to coerce change, you need leverage. That leverage would likely be withholding new uploads until they offer contributors a raise. That requires group action, particularly by the top sellers, and there's the sticking point.

From my perspective, the biggest problem with my earnings is that the high value SOD sales have largely vanished. I think that's part of their Premier changes. As I assume they have content from top suppliers in the "club" that's still getting those high value SODs, those folks will have no reason to rock the boat.

This is about power and leverage, not logic.

But feel free to ask

They don't need to they are out of sight of the competition due more to their competitors ineptitude than their brilliance. They shine in the industry by being merely competent
 

From my perspective, the biggest problem with my earnings is that the high value SOD sales have largely vanished. I think that's part of their Premier changes. As I assume they have content from top suppliers in the "club" that's still getting those high value SODs, those folks will have no reason to rock the boat.

yes me too, not even the 28 bucks SOD . it used to be regular 28 -85, with the odd 102.
now for a long time, nfa!
btw,  what is this Premier  you mentioned?... and how would that cut us out from the 28 to 102 sod we used to make? you think that if we have a record of earning those,ss would add
us to that Premier thing.

lastly , back to OP, i agree with JAS, it's more likely a shift to lower earners and let the
top earners be damned.
the intro of 35 payout limit leans that way to say we expect you to earn less, not more.
.. and also the lower of the bar for entry from 7/10 to 0/10...
also points that they are looking for marijuana uploaders you are going to go "woo yay!"
when they reach payout in 6 months; that would get an exodus from dreams comatose-time
as you get payout there once every half life-time as a contributor 

not to forget ss still need to maintain their tofu eating IT pros even though they can't even
outsmart the hackers of late. i suggested they sack the whole IT dept
and hire those hackers for peanut. i am sure they would prevent those attacks stat.

...btw,  what is this Premier  you mentioned?.. and how would that cut us out from the 28 to 102 sod we used to make? you think that if we have a record of earning those,ss would add
us to that Premier thing.

Premier Select is the area that I think may have redirected SODs for the bulk of us

http://www.microstockgroup.com/shutterstock-com/new-ss-premier-platform/msg412275/#msg412275

http://www.microstockgroup.com/shutterstock-com/where-did-odsod-go/msg452467/#msg452467

Be careful what you wish for. Their main objective is to satisfy the shareholders first. We're just along for the ride now.