On just the motivation side of it....steem is setup for withdrawal then contribution. Steemit is the only place you can come and earn money in crypto from scratch by blogging and curating.
The that money can be taken to do whatever with, pay bills. Buy some BTC that is flying.
On the flipside the price of steem isn't doing much so there is no motivation for gains there in addition to the fact that it can just be earned from posting and curating, thus less motivation to invest in it.
I bought steem once back in 2016 and earned the rest of my SP posting. I have bought every other crypto once. I was able to build a position in Steem without investing dollars.
Its the blessing and curse of steemit.