There are for sure lots of potential technical methods to overcome the relationship problem. One of these would be assigning random high-karma users everytime s

There are for sure lots of potential technical methods to overcome the relationship problem. One of these would be assigning random high-karma users everytime someone submits a link. Same goes for the time lag issue. You could assign only high-karma users who are currently browsing the site. In the end you could always opt-out.