I think this articulates SOME of what I'm thinking (which is not easy to articulate):

"Overall it resembles a repentance of merritocracy and a move towards democracy.
Quite opposed to what STEEM is about."

IMHO, STEEM is broken currently..
When instant registration and communities happen (HF20?) then we see something that actually scales and can be advertised. So for now, I tell people it's broken, and it needs to be fixed, and we are waiting for the "fix".

But I do think this brings up a very good point. It's been Wild West now for a while, we see upvote bots, various things many would say FIX steem in some ways, or alter it so it works, for the time being...

Many call for more "Democracy". (!)
As if this actually works in the real world today (maybe not so far)?

But they have a point, so if Meritocracy is balanced with Democracy, it's balanced with "Wisdom of the Crowd" that really won't want to understand the underlying game theory that well. They just want to participate and see a healthy return on their investment of their time and energy spent.

I can imagine different sorts, and they may give people more of what they are looking for in a feed. Or better rewards when they have many upvotes and so far, no rewards for many minnows.. which obviously needs to be fixed.

A competitor that is truly decentralized, won't really gain competitive edge until it can satisfy all of these user types... And once it does?

Humm.. Danger Will Robinson.