I'm catching up and just got to this article. I do think that it's ironic that for all the pandering and posturing, Steemit is pretty much like real like. There are rich. There are poor. Everyone "works" but for different wages. Some put in more effort and are (hopefully) rewarded for that. Some work through economies of scale by having others do the work for them.

There are a lot of things that could be different, but it's often easier to ask someone else to give things up for you than it is to give things up for others. If a whale has x-number of voting bots and is able to cash in on the system to which they were an early adopter, which they've helped build, can you blame them? It's hard to say. I get your point though. And there aren't easy answers.