That's not the only reason.

When a noob comes in and sees these 50 word + image posts getting hundreds of dollars while their posts that are actual quality might get .003 cents in upvotes, that is a psychological barrier that will cause most minnows to just drop off because the effort to payoff is relatively non-existent.

Add to that the loss in crypto value in general.

Add to that the fact that Steem doesn't really have any form of useful 'market', the only thing to buy with steem is dollars.