I agree, it's the curation system that needs fixing to support retention. All we have now are die-hards, not Joe-soaps, and Joe-soaps need serious utility, not ideology or additional rewards for the die-hards.
For this we need a new tag system: https://steemit.com/steemit/@manipulable/proposal-make-tags-useful-in-steemit-or-copy-linkedin
A few weeks ago the same people were complaining how it wasn't fair that a makeup tutorial made $20,000 and now people are complaining Steem is only for diehards? People are going to complain but if Steem is fun for most people it can work.
The same people were complaining about those two instances? Because if not your post is mute.
If Steem is only for die-hard Steemers then it's not interesting to the vast majority and can't compete with Facebook or Reddit or anything.
The feature set must be developed for greater niche curation.
Not exactly the same people but as a figure of speech, it's groups of people who complain one way or the other about who is winning on Steem at a particular time. First there were people complaining about travel blogs rewarding ordinary people and now we have the blowback reaction. Now people complain about not enough ordinary people.