well, the thing is that it is not easy to gather a decent amount of SP. either blogging or buying
And I started with blogging and bought a small amount of my SP as well to get me going.
I will admit I am not all in on steem, I take a part of my SBD earnings and convert them to other Crypto (ICO and other Coins) as a diversification.
I also do not need the revenue from steem at the moment but hope that I will be able to live off the crypto in the future, same as you, but hence a bit of the diversification but no return in fiat.
And all the spammers are indeed taking advantage of the system but since there are such services as steemcleaners there is a bit of supervision. But there are not a lot of whale /dolphin spammers and there is a reason. They are shortsighted and go for quick wins. and this will always be so...
So in the end I do believe the platform will improve because the people that are interested will invest in the platform and will power up and grow (even if its just time) and those that are not will take out earnings and stay small
It was not so long ago that when SBD was at 1.05, there would be a frenzy of buying as it was 5% more value. How quickly expectations change? I am am still powering up a fair amount.
I have done this too and I don't 'only' hold Steem but, it is definitely the majority especially since I have bought in again with profits from others.
Yes, it will take asome time but, I think it will build steadily from here on out this year. the end of 2018 and 2019 will be big... I feel (without any concrete reason)