From a purely idealistic standpoint, I would agree with you. However, I'm very disappointed with the organic growth STEEM and steemit has had since the summer. We are approaching 1 million accounts created, which is a very low number considering that the blockchain is as revolutionary as it is and provides opportunities to people that are really unheard of elsewhere. My expectations were at least 5 times the current numbers with or without HF20.

While I agree that steemit inc should not themselves run a referral program for the reasons that you stated, I think it is good if Dapps and alternative STEEM front-ends tries this out. While you may very well be right in how it may result in adverse selection of people and thus declining quality, you might also be wrong. Having some different branches of the STEEM ecosystem try out something new for the rest to observe and take notes is something that I am all for, even when I am not convinced 100% of the idea.