But befriending people Online is really cool! I can only tell you from my own experience, but I was able to stay in UK going from nown to town, and crashing for a night at different people's sofas and the like for a whole month! And it was back i 2001, way before the rise of Couchsurfing and other travel clubs.

How was that possible? I befriended some of those people Online, and had some good reputation in their Online Community. If you are interested that community was DiscworldMUD. But it took me a couple of years to get there. Steem is now what? Four from the start, and month and a bit since the Public beta? I am sure that I'd be able Incredible things a couple of years from now, even if my income stays the way it is.
Steem is much more potentionally valuable as an Online Community, than an icome revenue source. And most online communities can't be used as such a source from the get go. Or if they can, the barrier of entry and participation is much higher, with costs of having a domain name, server and the like not feasible to some of the people. That is why they prefer Facebook. It is hassle free, its popular, and so the Steem will be if we allow it to grow.

I am guessing a lot of this worry comes from the fact that the STEEM userbase is a bit smarter and invested in the platform, so they keep thinking about its future. The ammount of posts like this one means we are on the right track as a community. And it doesn't matter if it is selfish selfinterest people are acting or some sort of altruism.