Speaking as a Red Fish:
- Any incentive for me to invest is gone due to abuse of power witnessed since joining.
- More time is spent researching, investigating, and trying to figure things out than is creating actual content beyond said research and investigation (and for me, I do not draw the attention and collaboration as ones done by accounts such as yourself [well deserved, in most cases]). I really miss those first couple days, when I didn't have a clue (not that I'm any more "clued in" now).
- Though a transparent blockchain, it is quite complicated and seems to grow more complex by the day (with little in the way of official answers aside from having to try and dig it up in others' steemit posts). Although all the info is supposedly there, it is not that easy to find or even know where to begin looking.
- Nothing, to my knowledge, is being done to address the issue of the few let in early who now dominate the platform (releasing to a few while it was all still on the "down-low"). Despite it's intention(s), it does have the affect of helping newcomers feel as if they own no shoes and are in a race they are forced to wear weights in (while others own brand new running shoes and are given protein bars).
- We can not call steemit "a game" without it being expressly stated when signing up. A promise of "authors get paid for their content" is misleading if any defence of it being a game can be justified. It's either a source of a revenue stream ("get paid") or a game ("gamble, for entertainment purposes only").
- And let us not forget the sloppiness of the sign up process itself. No guards or protections for minors, now even more extensive wait time for official start ups (or trusting a service with your new password/keys if having an existing member purchase a new account)....
7).... And on and on (and I could go on, yet stretching into more personal perception and beliefs that would add little to the conversation's main topic).
The bread crumb answers given so far, though appreciated, do little to strengthen this Red Fish's trust in the platform.
You raise very valid concerns and I agree with many of them.
☑️ on all those points.