I'm on Steem because Steem allows me to monetize my photography hobby to an extent would be unlikely to happen on any other platform.
Then you produce it in a way that people are willing to monetize it. You can also buy stake and stake up what you earn to earn also, something still not possible on Facebook.
STEEM is a cryptocurrency and I love stacking it up. If all the rewards went to professional quality content creators or stakeholders at the large Orca/Whale level, I'd spend a lot less time here.
The benefit of owning stake is choosing what gets rewarded. Those with a massive amount of stake might reward professional creators more than people posting their lunch. Those who own stake to reward stuff they like will spread it to others also.
But the thing with the user base is that it is not really a community, at least not for the most part. It's too large and too diverse.
It is many communities and if one is looking for their community to get supported, they have to get their community to stake.
What's keeping the user base together is really the monetary incentives.
No problem with this, except when people only expect others to provide it. That is fine too but those without stake that are earning will have to eventually recognize that they have chosen to be governed and the decisions made, they must live by.