I did a similar mistake thinking I would present the website info to bypass locational censorship. It's a small distinction to make, but basically its ok to quote and cite other peoples work, so long as you present it in an 'original works' method i.e. your commentary of other peoples work.
Hey, atleast you didn't start a flag war with the cleaner thinking they were just some dude censoring what you publish due to person bias.
Ahh the learning curve of steemit. :) Sorry to hear about your investment downturn, still at it tho... as you might already know, such as the example of bitcoin - the price eventually skyrocketed on that once it got some traction. The first purchase with bitcoin was a pizza from overseas (costing over 10,000 bitcoins) - that's one expensive pizza comparatively to now.
There will be market swings as people try to exploit ways of profiting, but it will settle - the difference here is that steemit's value is intrinsically connected to a platform of content curation and sharing, I suspect with the downsides to other social media platforms, and the benefits and value of steemit - this is really something that I believe will extend to an equal reach of bitcoin, and even becoming a darkhorse that pushes bitcoins growth and integration.
Despair, we have all been there... and we all know that optimism and patience will put us in good steed :)
Thank your advice