They are pricing it based on USD value which if you notice the USD/STEEM value is going DOWN! Steem is dropping in price vs the USD and is causing you to over spend before you get your reward! Just wait till ned's new upgrade that removes author rewards all together. ALL those bots will leave, all the people who earn by posting will leave, it will just be SHIT content and the steem founders (ned) left up voting eachother while the price of STEEM drops to near 0!