It's do or die time for Steemit. Communities and SMTs should be finished and released. I'm sure the Steemit team is working hard on it, but the current momentum brings a little pressure.

It's a free market at work—is the winning argument.

That's not a winning argument at all. It's just Hive account@ned's argument. I heard him say this as an answer to a question at Steemfest2 in Lisbon (the question was much like your post here-above). My jaw dropped and I couldn't believe the CEO of Steemit does not care one bit about growing the community, focusing the reward system to incentivize quality and engagement, but would rather just focus maximalising investor returns.

As a community, we should simply do what we can. Act like we would want others to act. Help each other, foster a positive growing environment open to new members and rewarding quality. If it fails we will try again.

Probably on a different DPOS based blockchain.

However, if Steem survives this year, we might be looking at a $50 - $100 Steem valuation. That's not impossible, I think.