So I joined STEEMIT a few months ago, thought it was great. Spend quite a bit of time on STEEM for the first two months, not only commenting, but I did write a few unique articles as well. I am pretty realistic and do realize they probably were not the best, but have seen way worse.
A few examples ::
https://steemit.com/money/@life-of-al/a-financial-lesson-that-i-wished-i-had-learn-t-earlier-in-life
https://steemit.com/life/@life-of-al/friends-that-are-bad-with-money-episode-1
https://steemit.com/life/@life-of-al/is-it-time-for-a-world-language
https://steemit.com/travel/@life-of-al/tendollarfoodchallenge-eat-out-food-challenge-south-africa
https://steemit.com/budget/@life-of-al/could-you-cut-your-food-budget-by-75-we-tried-it-for-four-weeks
For the above, I received around $0.5 for ALL. And many others small contributions say around 35 as well as 100 - 150 comments. I got to level 37 and then stayed there.
Just using this as an example, but this guy joined yesterday, is already at level 36 and earned more with this one post than I did in my 2 active months. Good for you niall - just using you as an example.
Is this sour grapes? Without a doubt. :)
But is it pointing to a problem? Not sure. I does seem that many leave quickly - but maybe that is just my perception. For me, it's not how little I made (I was probably overpaid!) - it was how much other people made for often, very little. Personally, STEEM 2.0 needs to take a good look at the rewards structure.