I am not worried about my own reputation or $$, I have plenty of both. I think Steemit has a real problem if it wants to be around in 1-2 years, if it wants to grow. Some of the top earners produce garbage. It's not secret, and they get more comments/upvotes because the decentralized system has algorithms that are unclear - as such, people make guesses as to how to rise through ranks rather than enjoying content. this alone will be enough to ultimately flush the network over time of any real quality.