Hi my friend,
Thanks a lot for the great comment and the resteem!

I gladly try to answer your question:

Why? Isn't buying those tokens (Cards) similar to buying tokens on steem-engine (like PAL or LEO)? Why shall we recommend to users not to do that? I'm a bit confused and I would love to understand what's on your mind.

I struggled to understand for a long time how the tokens and cards influenced the steem economy and I have developped a theory about it:

Before the steem-engine token, you had three choices with your steem. Either you powered up, or you invested in bid bots or you exchanged it into other currencies.

With steem-engine tokens and also with splinterland cards this reality has changed. You now delegate this choice to the person who sold you the tokens.

Let's say you buy a new token that has just been issued. The token is created from scratch without inner value. The steem that you spend goes to the creator of the token. The steem didn't get transformed, it just changed hand. Now it is the token creator who has the choice what to do with the steem. If he doesn't power up, he either exchanges the steem into other cryptocurrencies or buys other tokens.

With cards and tokens, steem is just the means of paiment. It's not bound, in contrary it stays liquid. With loss of trust into the currency, people will want to get rid of it and buy for example splinterland cards that are indexed to USD and keep their value better. So liquid steem just changes hand till somebody sells it for another crypto currency or fiat and lets the price dip.

In conclusion

I believe that steem-engine tokens play a big role in the negative price evolution of steem. Why because if I put myself into the shoes of a person who just created a new token. If I manage to sell thousands of my tokens and get steem for it. What would I do with these steem! I would make sure that they do not loose their value. So I would invest them in something that keeps the value better like btc.

I think with the low prices it's a really good time to buy steem. Not too much at once. I believe that prices will still drop but we will reach a point where only the people keep steem that really believe in it and in the long term this will allow to turn the prices around.

Best regards,
Achim