I do like the maze analogy. For me, Steemit is largely about "breaking even" as well... in the sense that I love to write and do the online social interaction thing, but I have typically never been able to justify participating much, as working "for money" was a necessity.

Here, I can explore writing and blogging in various forms and build a social media base... and the "ROI" allows me to spend time here, rather than having to give that same time to some 15-hour a week part time job.

And that's definitely WINNING.