I would agree its not a pyramid or ponzi, but I think its more closely related to a Multi-Level Marketing Scheme.
It has many levels, and you are encouraged to do different things at diffierent levels.
Newbies/Minnows = Comment and grow an audience.
Dolphins/Orcas = Write content.
Whales = Curate and get rewards based on the content of others.
Each level essentially benefits off the work of those below it. You can't just come in as a minnow and start writing great blog content, it'll rarely get discovered or encouraged. You have to play the game to some degree, which makes Steemit less powerful than it could be.
You're right that new authors will find it difficult to be discovered. This problem is the same on any other social media platform I have found. I wouldn't call it a MLM more of a social attention issue.
It's not impossible to be discovered quickly however and quality content will gain more followers than the less useful posts.
Most Steem users join to use and create a network that is more fair and open than the advertising based networks we have become accustomed to lately. Together we can form a strong network.
What suggestions do you have?
Made an entire post dedicated to improving the discovery features of Steemit.
Steemit incentivizes quick, ethereal content because it vanishes so quickly. The only content that lingers on the Trending page tends to come from the early investors with high reputations.
Overall, if steemit wants to open up the long tail of content creation, the content it celebrates cannot be throwaway popcorn posts, Steemit bragging, follower celebrations, and whales being whales.
Those are both good articles.
The discovery issues can be fixed with the UI I hope.
Regarding "popcorn posts" I would like to see more long term or repeating curation cycles so authors are less enticed to post clickbait and can focus more time on creating better content.