Yes, but any crypto currency you can invest in has the potential to go up at base value. I mean bitcoin doesn't even have a platform, product or anything its its value is thousands of times what was invested.
To me the attractive part of investing in steemit is that that investment can be USED but currently its not really that easy for an investor to get immediate returns. If there was then people wouldn't NEED to GAME the system like is happening.
We need to accept that fact that investors want to make money and build that in for them. Also I don't think there is any crypto that didn't have insiders getting the biggest stake on the early. Thats just the benefit of being on the inside. Sucks for others but good for them. Its just the way it is.