And another important thing is, that as an early investor (and it doesn't mean if you are you investing your efforts or your money), you are really leveraging the low prices and lower reward pool actually means higher potential rewards.

How? Right now the price of STEEM per USD is about 0.5, give or take. That means, that of that amount that is shown next to your post pays about double of the number in SP, compared to the time when price of STEEM is $1, or 4 times if the price is $2, etc. While the liquid rewards are lower, the potential rewards are great.

I think people already went through adjustment on how they perceive the payouts, because there was a lot of grumbling about the numbers going lower, with the price of the pot decreasing with the price of STEEM, so I'd rather be paid $100 now, than $200 back in July, because my SP rewards are quite a bit higher.