Honestly I would love to become more involved in this community on a more integral level, but I've seen and experienced firsthand - to lesser degrees - the same dismantling of communities that you have. It fills me with trepidation and anxiety, and that's held me back from increasing my involvement.
Despite that, I sincerely do believe in this platform and its transformative potential. Viewing Steemit as a publishing platform is absolutely right, I'm a freelance copywriter as well and the potential to earn a living by writing things other than fantastic fairy tales about washing machines is achingly appealing to me. Additionally, the amount of reward and recognition I've earned from posting my fiction on here is several orders of magnitude higher than even my biggest royalty check from my attempts at publishing my work through traditional channels, and that makes me want to become so ensconced in this community that you couldn't dislodge me with a crowbar.
There is a serious problem with the centralization of power on Steemit, which is irony writ large considering the entire concept behind blockchain-based technologies is decentralization. I have fears, like you, that the violent and powerful among us will wreck this place, simply because they can, and that has stopped me from becoming involved. I'm not ashamed to admit that I think it might break my heart.
Start eating glass then your fear will dissolve. You have nothing to lose by getting more active. Just don't count on anything though. That's the attitude I had on day one. Things have changed a lot, and I feel that they will change even more in the future. This is a fast moving train.