That's one of the things I love most about steemit. The draw is initially the money, but it really is so much more than that, and at the end of the day the money becomes secondary to helping others who have become your friends. Just like the whitepaper says, it is a sort of reverse crab in the bucket analogy where each crab helps push the the other up and the crabs that have made it out reach back and help to lift up those who helped them in the first place. If you can name another site where this occurs, I'm all ears, but I doubt one will be found.
YES.
I did go through my own phases of being swayed by dollar signs. But as I persisted through the discouragement of seeing some intro posts getting thousands of rewards while mine got $32 and kept refocusing on creating VALUE for the community, something shifted in my brain and I began seeing much greater possibilities for what can be created here, that is totally separate from the financial side of things.
Many people will bitch about not making money and how unfair things are. But if you dig into their post histories, you will find a very predictable pattern that such people do not understand the fundamental principle that VALUE is rewarded. nothing else.
there are essentially five types of value. you could analyze posts all day long and break down why the highly rewarded posts get what they do, based on how highly they rank in the 5 different types of value. it's not chance. it's a science.
and in the end, the finances flow to the VALUE - value that enhances users experiences, is informative, inspirational, entertaining, original, and is well-delivered. in the end, it's all about providing VALUE. ;-)