A lot of the anger from people is that money gets locked up when powered up...
That's precisely the feature that Bitcointalk scoffers zeroed in on when calling it a 'Ponzi scheme'.
But given how Steem's turned around, the lock-in has been a net benefit. It makes you think hard before selling. Moreover - this was the design feature - it means that using your STEEM to influence the rewards stream (by upvoting) requires you to make a commitment to the platform by locking-in.