RE: Steempower (RC's) is a way more flexible resource than gasoline. Look further than the current troubles.
Never said that but you have to start somewhere to achieve something. It has taken me 6 months to get to where I am now with no investment. It has been 12 hours a day basically in order to grow. We all know new users will be coming when SMT's start so there is a massive urgency to grow.
The platform is in beta form and needs to change and adapt so it can open all the new accounts. There is a cost to doing this and that is why the resource credits were introduced now. A new account wont have the luxuries that we experienced when we joined. The platform will be split up into various Dapps using different tokens and each community will support each other. The key is holding Steem Power at the end of the day. New accounts get noticed all the time but the ones who aren't need to work smarter. This is not a get rich quick scheme at all and takes time. New accounts can grow on 10 votes a day with a handful of comments. If you invest it would be easier and some will do that but those that can't afford to will have to work within a community to get support.
The ones that abandoned the platform couldn't hack it and was harder than they thought. The reality is it will only get harder.
There are multiple issues going on:
As far as rewards, I'm not active enough at posting, and now even the few comments is about my limit per day. So, I still treat it like a video game score more than a currency in my head.
It is a fun experiment, maybe might make a few bucks, I dont really care. However, it seems that there are some seriously poor decisions, especially as some of the technical issues have become apparent.
How much RC is used on automated messages, automatic votes, spammed likes for pay, follow bots (I still dont understand the logic for this at all)? Who gets stuck not being able to post because of the costs? The new people who already get no rewards, whose votes count for nothing except those times you hit the jackpot of liking before the bot spam and get curation points.
I'm telling you, human nature will not allow people to see people making bank on click-bait+gaming while well thought out dissertations float by, and then to be further restricted...
User retention is a hard enough issue when people can like as they want, comment on what they want and not need to strategize.
I like the platform, I understand that the operators need to get the funding to keep the servers running, I dont care that some, who take the time to build a following get better rewards than my few actual posts per month with i think maybe 50 humans that see my posts (again stating as fact, i can't be upset because meager efforts have mediocre results). However, it's worth noting how the scales are being tipped to the favor of those who already invested that it creates a barrier for entry.
As things scale up, so will the costs... the restrictions will only increase.
You could be right and I am sure they are aware of issues. This is very new to me and I am still learning so the rc's being introduced now is a curved ball I had to get my head around. I don't like the idea of too many restrictions either.