When I was a new user to the platform I extensively used google to find things here on Steemit. I have found countless people/articles through this route. Visibility sucks and I want to find things I'm interested in on the fly without scrolling endlessly through tags. Not saying, that I don't want to periodically explore "random" content. However, generally I don't like doing that, my time is precious and when I want something it's usually specific.
Why was the simple view metric removed from posts? I believe it suggest many possibilities. With that being said, I have a strong suspicion that it was done with intentions that I consider to be a bit shady... It suggest a breaking away from certain value paradigms via avoidance tactics, as to not draw attention to it. Platform direction? We will see.