I think you totally should have made #stahp a trending hashtag/keyword with your original post.
Aside from that, very well thought out post. We've certainly seen a lot of people join up here without any kind of experience in journalism, blogging, reporting, or (writing as a whole for that matter) and expect to make a ton of money from copy/pasting news articles they find at other sites. Its refreshing to see so much original work being displayed here on steemit and users getting rewarded for that. I agree with you, I think many of those who have make a fair chunk of change have put a lot of work into their writing for years and years.