There is an additional element: Steemit would not function if it were not for the people on the blockchain. There needs to be some return for them and if I were to view my engagement here from the perspective of ROI - and purely in economic terms - and I include sweat equity because in my line of business, time is money - I should have dumped it a long time ago.
Why do I stay, in addition to the community? Well some of that has to do with the dapps that I use and which make it seamless to post to the blockchain and which offer me a value-add. What I will add, which is as important is that I was blogging/microblogging from those platforms before Steemit, so its part of that which keeps me here.
One last point: If the propsect of realising returns for the sweat equity does not improve and I'm offered other opportunities that are commensurate with what it's worth, well, that, too is a no brainer. I'm gone. I'll get @jaynie's boot and probably end up off the platform.
Fiona