Just to add my two cents, to emphasize one of the points even more.

Steemstem is not only about curation. It is a project targeting the development of a community of STEM lovers. And I can say we are very close to that. Steemstem members are feeling that they are part of something bigger. They chat with each other, could it be on the discord or via their posts, they support each other, etc. Anything a community would do.

The only people for who life is hard are our 12 curators and the 5 team members (especially them). We work days and nights for making this happen. Yes, we can call this 'work' at this level... But we are people who (still) think this is the right thing to do here.

PS: apologies for spamming the comments of your post with my two-cents everywhere :p