I wanted a pony for Christmas and I didn't get it... that's NOT fair!
Anyway, the developments that I have seen here have been in a positive direction (I've been here a bit over a year now). When I first arrived, there was pretty much NO support for noobs. On a technical level, I can't really speak much about it as I'm aware that I don't know much about the backend compared to those who are knee deep in the workings of it... and I am not going to succumb to Dunning-Kruger now!
From the curation side of things, I'm a touch worried about this idea that the masses know best. I've seen that networking and get automated support trumps actual ability in certain things... but that isn't too different to the real world!
As for the blogging side of things, I can only say... I would never have expected anyone to give me 10 cents for reading anything that popped out of my head... so I'm pretty happy at the roughly 1 USD that seem to roughly get on a daily basis... it's a tad more than I would give myself!
I whole-heartedly agree with your end statement. Commitment and belief in STEEM is what we want in our witnesses, this doesn't mean blind dedication either. However, this is a new world, we do need to discover and build the structures that we have taken for granted in other more established systems.