No one will want to stay as long as the current system is the same. Rewarding shitposts is killing the engagement big time. Prime example of how dysfunctional this site is: one of my posts received over 300+ upvotes and over 230+ comments during the most dismally low engagement time (now), which I think is an all-time record for me personally. The payout was about $20 while a mealy-mouthed whale shill-backed account got $235 for 6 comments and less than 100 upvotes. Also, the post was a fraction of what mine was in terms of quality and quantity. No one is going to stick around for this type of bullshit. And my example is not even what the average minnow experiences, which is more like $00 for their posts. As long as Steemit doesn't recognize and reward organic readers and curators, and so become a truly decentralized platform, people won't bother sticking around. It's just not worth the negative cognitive load. I feel bad for @laonie. A big flushout of the flim-flam abusive whales needs to occur and I think it will. I just hope it's done as quickly as possible. The shitcoin miners who know nothing about writing, art, free thinking, critical thought and high quality writing need to vacate....soon.