Yeah ive played a few games where the gift style economy works well. Gifts were granted to the weak and new by the strong and the advanced, which in turn fed positively into the player base. Helping new players become more of a productive team member and and amplifying early social bonds. And the effect was self replicating in that the those new and developing players felt the need to do the same, passing on "Skills" and "Items" like real world generations.
Theyr also more casual and relaxed, less greed based.

I would like to see an economy with two things
i) Everyone inputs into a balanced economy. A weapons tax is placed on stronger players to help with this.
ii) Success in the economy requires skill more than it does time

Very good ideas OP.

Gone a Viking
In this system you compete with peers as to who can bring in the biggest wealth form raiding. These are then tithed to your superior in the hierarchy. The better you are the better upgrades you are allowed to have. However, you are obligated to reward those underlings beneath you or they are likely to become loyal to someone else.

Because you can get loot given by your underlings, you can also get upgrades too.

It is a modification of the Scavengers system, but you are not necessarily attacking your peers (in fact attacking your peers would be considered a bad thing).

It is also a bit like the Clan system in that the better your clan the better you are, but it focuses more on the raiding aspects of the Scavenger system.