Ah, and
"I could just be nostalgic (and old), but I think the Internet has turned into a much more hostile place in the past 2 decades. Probably because it's no longer reserved to tech-savvy nerds. Maybe that is what makes Steemit special?"
I totally think that is what makes Steemit special, and that we should really be looking to achieve a community of those tech savvy nerds more than we should be looking to have a general-purpose community.
That's what we'll do if we want to fend for our best economic interests, too. The skew towards us is getting quite pronounced, and I'm OK with that.