Fresh blood can't even get in right now. So it's totally wasted money too. Basically the front page is starting to look like one of those "OMG I can't believe Google pays me $9,000 a month!" scams. It's causing the site to lose credibility in the eyes of legitimate people who are trying to come to the platform and use it as an agent of change.
But hey, it's our platform. When the 1% controlled 99% of the wealth, the 99% created bitcoin. Steem stems from that same spirit. So imagine what happens to that spirit when this platform becomes over concentrated with too much power in too few hands.
Hopefully this won't come to a point where folks can't do a search for real content. I think if you follow someone who consistently writes honestly you can always catch their real posts. We can form our own sub community of real people.