I agree with your thoughts on steemit needing a middle class. What I think happens is many come here that "need" money so they end up extracting much of it instead of powering up. In some ways im ok with that because in time if this place sticks around it increases my "portion" of the reward pool awards. I do tend to support those who power up more though.
nothing wrong with getting there slowly except, the competition that will learn from the failures here quickly. I hope it does stick around though, i have put a lot of time into trying to get it to and I don't like failing ;)