have you ever not cared about how competent or successful someone was; you just hated their guts because you know they are a horrible human being? if the answer is yes, then you can see how merit based system will yield to social conflicts and how anarco-capitalism will eventually become regular runaway capitalism in the hands of popular and charismatic people as oppose to competent volunteers. Human emotion is far more powerful than any logical system - by pointing to our flawed human nature I can recognize why we do need a higher system of governance. We simply cant contain our righteousness and emotional urges... I'd like to think that everyone can offer something useful to the table and be compensated on the merit of their output alone, but even with STEEM, the game is social interaction and status more than content quality - how do you even measure the quality of content without being able to compare it with all the rest of the content? you are far more likely to upvote someone you care about and have some emotional connection with, than simply good content of a stranger. Am i wrong?

But even if I entertain the possibility of a society where quality of output is the only factor of human worth, then you are up to some crazy anxiety ridden society - trying to outperform each other in every aspect, it might seem voluntary - but its not, its just pressure from a different direction.