This must have been a hard post to write !
I've always been torn between understanding the need to reach out to Web2 users and bring them over to the Hive Side, and hating the idea that we have to pay Web2 corporate monsters to do so (or even that we have to have anything to do with Web2 !)
As an interim measure is there anything that could be done with Leo Threads ? I appreciate it becomes more a case of "preaching to the converted", but we wouldn't be haemorrhaging Hive wealth to Twitter so the saving might help cover the rewards. The goal of increasing the adoption rate of Threads (especially if it can be done in a way that raises it's profile outside Hive) seems just as beneficial as putting Hive content onto Twitter to try to entice users over here.
We created a new token that works similarly to POSH for threads/dbuzz/etc. I'm not sure what exactly could be done to drive traffic towards threads other than the people now already on twitter "promoting" hive and threads, many who may be there mostly due to posh.
Hopefully reddit won't end up the same way and we can scale our activity there.