As an (amateur) game designer, I can tell you that the whole Steem system sucks from the perspective of game mechanics.
It has to be redesigned from bottom up.

First, flags have to go. No flags. Or if they remain they have to be completely without any material effect. Otherwise we have a dystopian future where someone can quite literally BUY censorship powers. I don't like your review of my product, I'll just flag you to invisibility. People are sick of censorship, that's why they're seeking new social platforms... and here you give tools for ANYONE with deep enough pockets to silence anyone they wish.

Second. Trending and hot pages have to be SEVERELY redesigned. For example, there should be a category for posts which have a lot of votes of small SBD value. Popular vote, democratic vote if you will. One account, one vote.

And this is just the beginning. Of course the system is designed to be cutthroat capitalism, but there are reasons why cutthroat capitalism never worked for the majority of the population, especially over time. It is all fine and dandy in the beginning, when the playing ground is fresh, but it very quickly devolves into a system of eternal, untouchable monopolies, cronyism and all-powerful robber barons, a game where newcomers have no future. In other words, from a game designer perspective - this is fantastic if you're making a game with a definite end. On the other hand, this positive feedback loop is terrible for a game which is supposed to last indefinitely. Really, I have a hunch people who designed this concept never played a MMORPG in their life...