Even though my deep-dive into the topic of writers' block brought the to the point where none of what you've said were new to me, I still appreciate you could make it to such a comprehensible shape.

All I can add is that another metaphor from game development, by Brandom Chung of Blendo Games, no newbie in the industry:

Make stuff - and then, make more stuff

He's full of prototypes and once in a while, when he can go on with one, that is always spectacular.

And in this context, Steem is a beautiful incentive because the spectacular stuff get major upvotes, while the average also gets some small rewards. Win-win.