I just add by reaffirming your perspective, with an additional despair in practically considering the numbers involved for human capital throughout an organization to create/change systems/result.
wikipedia.org/1%25rule

So in being data-driven critical of what's occurring, completely side-stepping the financial motivating incentives of steem as a crypto currency/investment/community, there seem's to be an ever-absent focus around the undefinable good/purpose of a tool like steem for karma/compensation/equalization-of-power in terms of faciliating 'posts', 'comments', 'tags'/curation, 'membership'.... perhaps i'm complaining about such present innovations for their lack of utopian visions/dreams for the future of the internet but as this entity grows in membership & economic influence, increasingly so does the incentive to exploit & manipulate it