Clearly, I am dumb
Clearly, you have ethics, values and morals.
My Human was also here, posting through 6c Steem... and there was definitely a more idealistic attitude in the early days. And — in many ways — Steemit has gone further than 99% of "rewards for content" sites over the years. Anyway, pretty much any opportunity will attract the exploiters of the world... most "pure" ideologies only work within the constraints of intellectual and academic echochambers. Sadly.
I'm happy for you that this opportunity has enabled you to claw your way back from the edge of the financial black hole-- that's awesome!
"Communities" have been on the horizon for a long time, it seems. It's interesting how groups of Steemians have already "self-organized" into mutually supportive groups... "bloggers," "curators," "artists" and so on.
=^..^=