@ned,
I'm going to tune in. Thanks for the heads up.
I have been critical in the past because I really want STEEM to take root and grow into a massive social media empire.
I understand the situation is what it is, and complaining at this point will do no good.
Instead of criticism, I have a suggestion.
STEEM blogs have an amazing ability to show up on search engines. Much of that is due to the mirroring of STEEM blogs through multiple Dapps. Another reason is that STEEM Dapps are very trusted sites for google search bots.
You should capitalize on this unique feature of STEEM blogs. Businesses pay top dollar to get search traffic to their site. Google and other companies do it all the time. You should charge businesses of all kinds that are looking to pay to boost their traffic. Then delegate the task of blogging about the business to freelance bloggers. Determine a fair split of Steemit Inc as finder fee/organizer and part of the proceeds go to the freelance blogger.
You don't even have to organize this at all. Just get a few entrepreneurs to work as salesman to the businesses and they take a commission for sales.