Making money online isn't simple period so I'm not gonna knock steemit too hard for that and while Youtube does have it's problems I've made WAY more on Youtube than I've ever made here.
The whole pennies on Youtube thing is kinda a myth, at times I have over a $20 CPM, I havn't seen my CPM under $15 in a long time, I would say $17 is about average for me. My content appeals to certain advertisers of SAAS software, ecommerce platforms etc. It's very true however that more general types of content ie a vlog isn't going to monetize well. There are Youtubers who are basically famous who are still working restaurant jobs but its because while they do have a shit ton of views, none of those views are really catered towards anything so maybe a company like Pepsi will say shit we/'ll pay $1 per 1000 views just for brand recognition but your not going to have anyone really willing to pay a lot.
On the flip side an appliance repair guy who starts a channel and show syou how to diagnose a problem with your dishwaasher and how to fix it is going to get very high CPM because anyone watching that video is almost guranteed to buy a part to fix their machine so advertisers will pay more.
Not saying Youtube is perfect and not saying steemit is shit but there's no denying while it has issues Youtube is a far superior platform if for no other reason than the algorithm alone. Youtube knows content I wanna see that I dont even know that I wanna see. Steemit I have to do a TON of searching to find something that interests me.