Hi, thanks for your upvote! I don't think there is any contrast here, building the platform and other parts of the ecosystem are contributions just like the posts are contributions. However a meritocracy is never closed towards new entries, and it does not bestow any 'right' to control the conversation or something like that. Essentially an aristocracy often starts out as a meritocracy, and then comes stagnation and the inheritance of power, and at that point it is no longer a meritocracy!

I have great respect for the developers, they are very very good, but I can still criticize that the system they've designed is not yet functioning to its best ability. As I've tried to make clear in another post, it is not simply the best we will ever get; there will be other entries in this field soon, and different strategies will yield different results in the future.