First, nice discussion you two are having.
Well, more or less, having non-original content linked to if it's an honest attempt at showcasing something interesting and not unethical, then I can get behind it. We are surely on the same page with not wanting copy/paste articles with low quality or non-existent comments by the reposter who is just trying to get some cash. Stealing content is also what none of us that really care about the "company culture" here wants.
I think something that is engaging and promoting discussion is better to me than a long winded original content essay. However, I suppose that depends on the community, if Steemit is going to embrace smaller communities as cogs in the bigger wheel, then those communities will end up deciding on their own what is worthy of upvoting and what is not.
I think you are right. This is going to be hard to predict. The future is funny like that. We users don't have the final say in how things proceed and some decisions may turn out to be fantastic and others disastrous. We can only wait and see and hope this project can be so lucky as to have these problems in the future.
Cheers