But why would anyone else want to buy your Steem? I still don't understand how it has any value unless someone else is willing to pay for it, and don't say "investment opportunity" because that sounds like one big ass Ponzi scheme to me.
But, perhaps you are right, and businesses will want to tip the scales in their favor by scooping up as much Steem Power as possible so their content stays at the top. If that becomes reality, and businesses end up purchasing a lot of Steem Power, then don't you think the Steem community will just become one big billboard? Users will leave. I don't see the benefit in having a community where everyone's voting power isn't equal. In fact, that sounds a hell of a lot like a Aristocracy, doesn't it? Humanity tried that before, it didn't work.
Steem can be used to create/buy Steem Dollars or Steem Power. Steem Dollars have transactional utility, they are a stable currency pegged to the USD which pay interest. Steem and Steem Power are really just bootstrapping the end product, which is the useful Steem Dollar as well as the networking site etc.
Pretty new to this and haven't really read the whole whitepaper but I assume that over time if things get too commercial, the community behavious will have users downvoting stuff that's not what they want to see? Might be a motivation for business to really consider if their posts are adding value or if it's just 'an ad'
And the UI will probably evolve as the number of people/posts scale up. I'm already hoping this happens soon.