This is something that they are putting upon Steem without realizing that the accusations fall to most economic systems. Steem is no different than anything else out there. Early adopters do tend to profit more. The risk is greater along with the fact that getting in early puts time in one's favor.
Likening it to the systems many wish to escape isn't exactly an endorsement. I would ask what risk many of the initial investors had exactly, other than the wear and tear on their CPU and a day out of their lives? Seems to me they quickly were enriched with the hyper inflation that existed then. How many millionaires were made from that initial mining? How much is their high claim on rewards responsible for the amount of Steem continuing to be dumped on exchanges that has seen Steem fall from a top 10 position on market cap to where it is today?
Much of the bad reputation has been earned, and it must be conceded that those initial investors (whether through their time or actual money) have probably all been made quite wealthy in their exchange of Steem for Bitcoin/altcoin/fiat. Enough that given the stagnation that went on here, one questions whether they really care if this fails or not. They are set for life now.
It will be interesting to watch and see if those like yourself are capable of undoing the damage to the rep here and salvage this project. Even if my concerns are valid and they either don't care if this fails, or worse, hope it does so they can move on with their lives.