spot on
As a social media we need the network effect and to have the most people on our platform. By reducing the attractivité to join Steem for new members, we are basically letting other platforms fulfill this need.
network effect absolutely will not happen if people have to pay first to get in!! nope! not in a world of other "free" platforms (i say "free" because there is the cost of stolen data, etc, but people turn a blind eye to that and think it's free)