Sure, however it is done in a non genuine way. For example "Wow I just found this platform and it is great" vs. " I was kindly invited here by the steemit crew to post" "I want to thank them for their offer to give me at least 100$ in steem for my #introduceyourself post"
Also this discussion goes in circles. As soon as anyone brings anything similar to this you get these responses "this is for profit" "you are against people earning" "you think everything is unfair" which is very far from the truth given that I am simply pointing out how it is under the surface. Then there are these comments which contradict the above claims "you shouldnt join steemit to make money" "you shouldnt think of steemit as a job" "you shouldnt look at the big picture two years isnt that much" all endorsing the idea of NOT getting paid, so here if you point out the facts of what is going on , you lose.