Steemit itself is a minnow in the social media world. We early adopters are taking a risk with it, but we can just invest our time if we don't want to put money in.
I do think the rewards on some posts are excessive. Thousands of dollars for a post on a site with just a few thousand users is ridiculous. You would need tens of millions of views elsewhere to make that.
I believe that the Steemit technology is good and it's evolving fast. Allowing developers to extend it is key and they will take it in unexpected directions.
It will be a fun ride
I actually bought a small amount of Steem Power when I first started, I have made that back close to 10x over already. Not even counting what my actual Steem Power is worth at the moment. And I'm having a lot of fun making posts. People from all over the world see and read my posts, not like Facebook where only friends of friends like them.
I bought a few SP too. I hope to make it back in time. I just enjoy interacting with people around the world discussing cool stuff. That will keep me coming back.