I don't think so. Look at this. You write some super-content article. Right now only several people will able to see your post and you will receive let's say 1.4$ with 25 upvotes. You have two possibilities:

• featuring
• promoting

Featuring is for free but you need to ask some whale and it's not sure if or when he will publish it.
Or you can invest 70 USD and promote your content because you are 100% sure it's best article people have seen.

If you're right and people will like it you will not get 1.4$ but you can get 1400$ and 200 upvotes or more just because you've invested just 70 USD. More risk, more reward and supportive for distributon.

Effect for Steemit is also positive because those 70 SD burned will never push Steem price down.

You're right that for better redistribution this feature doesn't bring very significant impact. But I don't think it was a main purpose when designed.