There was always a minimal fee that was burned. If you created accounts without delegation the fee was 3 STEEM. If you created accounts with delegation the fee was 0.1 STEEM + 15 STEEM delegation.

Steemit still gives delegation, but it is revokable now within a week as opposed to the 30 days that was required when an account was created with delegation

BTW, I wouldn't compare steem account creation to any other Blockchain aside from maybe EOS. Every other major Blockchain has the ability for a user to transact without needing an account created by someone else.

If steemit wants to avoid burning Steem, they need to claim more accounts. If they don't have enough RC they need to power up. If they are hitting global claim limits, they need to engage with the witnesses in public and not behind closed doors.

finally, on your point about wanting steemit to play a smaller role, it seems you contradict yourself in your previous comment

So maybe a discussion needs to be had between the witnesses, steemit inc and those hoarding tokens. I know the tokens are not transferable, but moving forward, maybe some people should back off for a while so steemit inc could grab a higher % of the new tokens created.

We can't have steemit be less in control by asking others to kindly move out of their way so they can avoid burning Steem. We should all want steemit burning Steem