I'd really like the 'pay-to-read' system too.

Don't hold your breath that steemit will suddenly care to offer the services we are interested in having. They would rather have people outside of the company develop new dapps to offer services for features that we actually want and requested. Many of these dapps are asking for some sort of reward-fee, donation, or delegation, to cover obvious maintenance costs, while steemit is basically free of charge.

The love of money. Watch out for those who prioritize their earnings and business as number-one here. They are everywhere, and they do not understand why they should have compassion for anyone else's needs. It doesn't make cents to them.

I think the underlying system for steemit was based on this model, with the primary goal to build wealth for those who have invested the most, but some of the people who initially joined were capable of using it in a better (less selfish?) way than intended. There are still a few strong ones left after all the storms endured up to this day.