Hi @rolandp, just a minor comment about your last point:
-- Being data mined and sold (every big 'no such thing as a free lunch' social company from sillicon valle
Steem does not avoid social data mining, on the contrary, it helps many more organizations do that, as the database is completely public. The advantage si everybody can, not a monoly, and everybody knows they can do it, being concious of the fact.
Best regards
Pablo