Despite it's success, what's the main thing holding Steem/Steemit back?

Question originally asked on Musing.io - Click here to see other answers

Despite claiming to be "decentralized" and all about "freedom" and helping people to make money... the inability of SteemIt to ensure a "one person, one account" system makes it easy for whales to create alternate accounts and "game the system." This is a big red flag, IMHO. Remember how much FaceBook took steps to ban "fake accounts?" Allowing the use of bid-bots and fake accounts means that the whales can easily hide the fact that they are massively upvoting themselves. Then, they can also claim that they are, "protecting the platform," by downvoting anybody who is taking too much of "their" rewards pool.

In short, SteemIt has become a circle-jerk for whales to take massive profits, and everyday people rarely make much money from it - unless they have thou$and$ to ante-up and start upvoting and buying votes for themselves.