So many salient points in this post, @surfermarly. And in the comments too. So many intelligent minds have been thinking about these problems and what can be done about them!
It's the commitment and initiatives from within the Steemit community that give me hope. It does seem like this is an experiment, and a number of flaws and solutions have been identified. I figure either those solutions will be implemented on the Steemit platform, or the knowledge gained will be exported to another site.