No I'm not talking about buying ads on steem I am just talking about buying ads in general. people could advertise on any platform.

I don't think people should worry that much about steem engagement, they should be creating content across multiple platforms and probably using a mailing list or self-hosted blog to post the main content. After that if someone wants to get involved on steem they should look for community stuff to get involved in like maybe the Curie project, Steem Open Mic, Peace Abundance and Liberty on discord, or any of them. Just not paying for people to comment. Paid engagement =/= organic engagement. The people are real but the engagement is not organic

I don't expect you to agree with me but that is my two cents. Best of luck to you