What if paying people to produce content is the root of all the bad things related to content and interaction on this platform?
The whole system is made to induce the feeling of scarcity. It appeals to the wrong part of the brain :). Is not about paying people, but having a limited time to do so. The content is also made to squize immediate reward, because that's how it works. Who on Earth comes on Steemit from any search engine?
Is all broken man :)))!
The answer for your article was given by @spbeckmam already.