Yeah, I think this may be a little steep for some users but perhaps over time it will come down in price.
For someone like me, who's been here for 7-8 months it's perhaps more valuable as when I posted a lot of my best research I had very few followers and Steemit had far fewer regular users.
Steemit inc. may also incorporate a similar feature in the future, so it's really an individual choice and maybe not for everyone.
It's definitely a great feature @v4vapid and I'll follow up on it a bit as I hope that it'll get easily available to all Steemians, including the small ;)