The platform isn't going to build itself for free. They need to cash out to buy better servers, hire good developers to create more features, market, etc. Also, as Hive account@mughat pointed out, steem also needs to become available to new buyers so we can grow the user base.

If you believe in Steemit, hold on to your hat. It's going to be a bumpy ride but we can all make it by building this community and not worrying so much about early-stage price fluctuations :)