As abysmal as your "profit projection" looks like. Bear in mind you can ask the same question about other content platform sites like Youtube or Medium etc..
First off, you need to put a price on the "worth" of your activities online. That's easy, just price your past activities from when BEFORE you got on Steemit. Everyone's "ROI" on social media different, while a regular video sharing post spamming troll likely wont make any money on their hours on Facebook. A brand personnel makes millions marketing his product on social media. Find out what's your price.
Has your time on Steemit made you more than your time on other social media site? even if it's 1 cent more its already 1 cent more. For me, my time on Steemit has definitely made a good ROI.
You need to understand that Steemit is some crypto-welfare system where people are guaranteed easy free money. The aim of the Steem Blockchain is to decentralize and democratize the content web and make it fairer for content creators.