Hello @stellabelle!
I am convinced that the main problem within the ecosystem of steem, which ends up modulating the economy and behavior of all of us who participate in this experiment, is the way in which the reputation of each of the users is measured and perceived.
You can argue that it is the great content that should stand out and give value to the platform, but the reality is that the contents that stand out or are promoted are those that have won the most money, regardless of the number of readers, of the quality of the content, of its creativity, or how innovative it has been for the social network.
In the current situation, it does not matter at all what your goals are in the long term, because the only way to achieve your goals is to make money. I think there is a lot of ingenuity in thinking that it is possible to obtain a high reputation value simply by publishing good articles. When the reality is that, with the current system of measuring reputation, you can only have a high reputation if you are supported by users who have a lot of money and who assign it to you with their votes. If you do not earn money, your reputation does not increase. Thus, the goal to be a great influence is to earn a lot of money .... And when none of those who have much steem power do not want to support you, then you buy it, rent it, or establish any strategy that allows you to fulfill your goal to increase your reputation, and inevitably all go to accumulate money ...
If we want any change in the way in which the steem economy is working, which in my view is only responding to the needs of its users that is making money, then we must change the way in which we perceive who are the valuable users within the community. That number enclosed in a circle should stop measuring how much money that user has received in support, and start measuring what the user's actual contributions are. The real challenge is how to get that number does not depend on the variable "money" or as it is called here Steem power.
I have seen as users who have articles with thousands of readings, but with a reputation of only 40, change their strategy to grow buying the vote of the whales. After a lot of effort, and in my way of seeing lost time, they have no choice but to thermalize in the generalized behavior and act accordingly. The sad thing about all this, is that this type of users are often "the voices of conscience" in our communities ...
I am convinced that the way in which reputation is measured is the problem, because it is the only variable that we should all depend on in this ecosystem to be recognized, but for now it is only destined for those who have more, or those who They know how to outwit the system and earn profits.
If the reputation does not depend on the amount of money that you are granted or that you are able to generate, but on the contributions you make to the community, then we would have an excellent variable that would give rise to a new type of user that would not only be focused on the generation of money.
To finish, and answer each of your questions, steem is everything that serves to meet the needs of the user who looks through their own perspective and lens, and for now, unfortunately no matter what optic that distorts your reality, all they are reduced to obtain more and more income. Hence, I believe that the behavior of the steem economy is appropriate to current conditions.
Greetings and excuse the length of the comment.
you raise some good points. I don't have the answers to them......thanks for responding.