Hello there! Thanks for reading and leaving a thoughtful response!
Unfortunately scammers always follow the money, that said I believe it's only reasonable that there are more and more users trying to milk the platform nowadays. Nothing actually changed regarding the trending page syndrome as I call it though. However this is human nature and this is just a simulated version of society; you just have to find those worth following and stick with them. Nobody said that Steemit is perfect and it definitely has flaws but it's still a wonderful platform regardless. It's up to us to make quality the norm. The world changes one step at a time.
Thank you for your insight. I certainly agree with your points.