I view it as an inflation pool to be allocated by stakeholders to that which they find brings value to the chan.

It is just a faucet, and one of the most clever ones at that. I agree.

But when I say cheating I still think that is the best word to describe the sentiments that the bots left a large portion (and a very important portion) of the user in. When you set up rules in a game or you sell a product you have to stick to your concept.

It's a bit like gerrymandering in the US. It is legal, but it is also against the spirit of democracy. Seen from the view of a person who think everything is about optimising personal and clique power it doesn't really matter if you live in a dictatorship or a democracy, it just change the preconditions. But some people actually care about what sort of society they live in and such people will see things from a very different angle and take offence. These people are not a insignificant minority.

I don't really care about Steem or Hive value any more. I lost faith in crypto not least thanks to the way investors have treated content creators and artists here on Steemit. Bitcoins might take over the role of gold, but it all depends on how it will be treated in the legal systems in the different countries. I am using Hive (probably not Steemit when I have finished powering down) as any other decentralised network and I do the same things here as I do in value free networks like Diaspora and Mastodon. People from this place supported my comic Kickstarter with fiat and that is the only thing that works really.

Sadly.