You made some good points! Steemit's reward system is quite too good to be true, & it is scary to think that we are just "trap" somehow with our greed.
Anyway, for sure, as more people are hooked at the $$$ shown in the trending posts, Steemit will grow until something "bad" happens, like hacking issue as perhaps a perfect alibi to shut down. Hopefully not!
I also hope that my thoughts are not correct.