Which Steemians provide the most value to the STEEM platform?
This can be approached from many angles, but you also would have to establish some metric for value.
Yes, building platforms, fair, but specifically towards currency adoption or engagement in platform say. Feel free to choose your own.
I think there are 3 types of steemians who bring the most value to the Steem platform.
First of all the builders. The builders are the ones who start new initiatives and contribute to the development of Steem platform. For example, developers of steem platform itself, developers of
projects like busy.org, steemhunt, steem monsters, musing.io and many others. If you view Steem as an ecosystem of service providers and consumers, these people are the producers of services. In the long run, they are the most important to the Steem platform.
Next, the consumers of services/content contributors. I am referring to quality contents here. Trashy contents actually have negative impact to the platform in my opinion. Service consumers and quality content contributors form the foundation of the platform and are the reason why the builders keep building. Furthermore, quality contents boost Steemit's rank on search engines and make Steem a more valuable platform.
Finally, the investors. Technically, they are the ones who bring direct value to the platform as the change fiat into STEEM, thereby boosting STEEM price and increasing it's market cap (which is the most direct measurement of value). However, I ranked them the least important of the 3 because without the first 2, these investors wouldn't have invested in the first place. In addition, these investors might be speculators who might pump the price to an unrealistic level and watch it fall later. Volatility isn't good for any kind of market. A slow and steady rise is always better. That's why in the long run, the ecosystem of service providers and consumers matter the most. The investments are like byproduct of a successful ecosystem.
At first all the Witnesses provide most value to the Steem Platform and then those Steemians who write original content.