This a brilliant synopsis and excellent extension of @stellabelle's post.

Every time I look at this issue, it seems to me there are four schools of thought on Steemit, and they are more or less "married" in pairs.

Short term vs. long term
Content creators vs. money makers

In the broadest sense, the "money makers" are married to "short term" and the "content creators" are married to "long term."

The thing I come back to is that communities-- especially in the long term-- have to be built by PEOPLE. I read @snowflake's post and appreciate the sentiment, but opting for "more profitable" doesn't amount to a hill of beans if the thing you're extracting "more profit" from ceases to exist.

But to return somewhat to your take on what we're doing here, perhaps what is most needed is more discussion on how we create LONG TERM sustainability here, regardless of WHICH format we settle on... we need to stop killing the goose that's (potentially) laying golden eggs, and I sense that means somehow reducing short term profiteering. HOW to do that? I don't know. Yet.