Use polls for voting on the starting parameters and important progression points, then use the simplified pseudo-democrabrain for all nonessential items that are between those points. I like the current setting you have, so I'm biased in saying use it again, but change the surrounding characters. Try to work on making time move faster so that we don't go through several dozen updates without even 48 hours passing.
I noticed a lot of people being unreasonable with their suggestions, or just outright suggesting things that can't be done at the time. Don't bother monitoring that, just try to keep the people suggesting things from getting ahead of themselves quite as much as they were, since it's only been that severe in this game.
Also, while I wouldn't call it a con, I'd like to see max skill levels raised so that it's easier to tell how good SCIENTIST actually is in that given area, rather than having to guesstimate it. I use 100 with skill evolutions, Aklyon uses 20 with game breaking stuff, and I'm not sure about anyone else. I'd say 30 with half levels would work for you, though you'd have to either increase or decrease the rate at which levels are gained. I can't remember how fast SCIENTIST grew at the moment.
Pros:
setting
writing
variety in choices
cons:
voting
time progression
people being stupid(unsolvable)