I don't get all this anger against Facebook. Every social network is a social place. The community decide how to evolve it. Stop blaming him for "making you a product".
You're a user. Steemit can live just because you're here. Are you a product on steemit too?
I agree about Steemit being better than Facebook. That's because Steemit PAYS you. And you can be whatever you want here. You can bring useful contents, funny contents, and being rewarded. Some people are leaving their job to live on Steemit.
I totally agree on that.
But blaming other socials is not the right way of promoting Steemit. Not in my opinion. They're just different things. You can monetize on Facebook too, you said that by yourself, but they're different platforms with different goal.
Steemit is more open, probably, yeah ;)