Inspiring post bro. I hear your ponzi schemes concerns, Hive seems too good to be true but it is true. Hive is battle tested for over 6 years and has tons of cool builders and community members who really fought and fight hard for decentralisation.
You should check out how Hive was born and our battle against giants like J. Sun and Binance who wanted to centralize the chain. Here's an example, mnay posts out there to check out