Society is far more valuable than mere money. Focusing on adding numbers is the main flaw in Steem IMHO. Sure, we need goods and services, but that's only a fraction of what we need, and devaluing a social network to such a tiny fraction of it's potential is the start of the slide down the slippery slope to irrelevancy.

Folks have lots of really interesting and socially valuable things to share with us here. IIRC, you and I are both opposed to rampant corruption, and strongly support individual freedom. I would part with all my money to be shed of the former and to gain the latter, and I bet you would too. Our ability to bump each other a bit financially encourages each of us when we upvote our posts. That social blessing is not the purpose of social networks, and failing to consider the far more valuable networking as more important than extracting a few coins retards Steem growth - indeed, causes it to shrink.

Social media isn't a token mine. It's real people interacting regarding real issues that really matter. Unlike money.

When you examine the history of business, even cursorily, you will find examples like Warren Buffet, who does not diminish the finances of his purchases while he does improve their business operations, and is rewarded for his investment when the value of the stock rises. You will also find examples like Bain Capital Partners, who have bought companies, sucked the last pfennig out of their coffers, and left them dead in their wake, leaving their stock worthless. Buffet's business model not only profits him so much that he has been the richest man in the world, it also profits the companies, and all his fellow investors in the asset. BCP profits themselves, but destroys the companies, and their fellow investors, for which they are constantly the subject of legal tort actions.

I note that code isn't immutable. It allows or does not allow whatever coders decide. It's not proven by eons of natural selection, or written by folks with competence in every known field of human endeavor. Good thing it's infinitely mutable, so that when facts are discovered that recommend changing the code, hard forking, it's a simple undertaking, if fraught with complexity. The Steem devs either originally created a golden parachute that transformed all the Steem they mined into fiat and making them rich, or simply didn't understand that difference between profiteering and investment.

After three years of evidence I find it hard to accord them the benefit of nescience regarding that. The code seems to constantly get forked in favor of profiteering, and never enables capital gains despite their protestations they seek higher Steem price. Self votes, bid bots, circle jerks and the like are never going to cause the price of Steem to rise, because they don't distribute Steem to a wider market that creates demand and raises the price.

Considering curation as a profit center is redefining curation. Curation is recommending good and interesting stuff, like a museum curator does. Paid per item, curation as rewarded on Steem more resembles Payola, where 1950s DJ's were bribed to play songs instead of actually curating the field and playing those the kids wanted to hear.

Payola turns out to be a crime.

Just sayin'