I agree with much of what you say, especially about all the negative posts driving away new users. I disagree with ignoring the trending page as a solution (I admit I mute a fair amount of people tho). One of the selling points is Steemit is supposedly the content curation aspect (which is not working so great as a glance at the trending page typically will demonstrate) . New people ARE going to be checking the trending page and be affected by what is there.
As for why do people make these posts OVER and OVER? Maybe two reasons.
- Posts about Steemit make more money then other posts
- Posts expire after 7 days (yes they live on, but mostly vanish into the dusty bin of old "demonetized" posts. Many topics are re-posted over and over becuase of this, not just negative ones.
Just t add to this currently 4 of the top 5 posts on trending are about steem or steemit (so steemit exists to talk about itself?) and the top post is a Grumpycat thing that new people are simply not gonna get or be impressed with. This is the first thing a new person sees when going to busy.org or steemit.com