I'm glad to see you think this through @practicalthought. We need more of that here if you ask me. I see some great responses below from some great thinkers, but I wanted to let you know that the more people that make these points, the more likely we are to some day be heard. Thanks for the post and love that you are thinking it in a constructive way!
I appreciate your response and resteem. You have become quite a leader here for those of us who have stuck around coming behind you. I was shocked to see I hadn't already been following you, as I became aware of your kind heart through your seeing through Brian getting his meds not long after you had done so. Since then I have seen you connected with Dustsweepers, as well as the exchange I linked to here. Your asking the tough questions, and ability to do so in a manner that invites truthful replies without it resulting in grudges and wars is a model to be admired.
I am hopeful that enough of us will grow strong enough that when the SMT market takes off that Steemit inc will still consider us a valuable project to continue working on, because so many of us stayed and made sure it grows in value. A value that shows what real communities working together and caring can realize.
Thank you for your kind words. They mean so much coming from you.
@practicalthought I could tell by your post that you immediate "got it"... I was happy to resteem because if people don't see the truth then we end up with everyone telling the king he looks good with no clothes.... I hope there are more of us that start to ask the tough questions (in a respectful way), because as Luke said it is "us that has unrealistic expectations". Only by "the little people" finding out and then working together where it makes sense, will we ever have a chance to influence the platform in any meaningful way!
Again, great post and happy to have a teammate! :)