Hi, @event-horizon. First of all, thank you for taking the time to discuss these issues.

I can say I agree with everything you say here and would like to offer my point of view.

The soul of Steemit is two folded: bloggers & audience--or so it used to be--; otherwise, the place will be plagued with garbage content no one feels the need, let alone the pleasure, to engage with. Now the fuel of Steemit is the money. Soul and fuel make Steemit go round--or so it used to be--. Fake accounts? Abusers? They're part of the price you pay to live in a free, decentralized world. They will always exist; and I can't come up with a solution other than working hard to expose them and blacklist them. I don't think they will "eat up" Steemit. If bloggers and audience grew in number and quality, Steemit would be great regardless abusers and fake accounts.

I have seen that a lot of interest has been put in engaging, but one certainly should not feel forced to engage if one doesn't like the content. I have been evaluating this situation deeply. Some truths must be said; one of the basic rights of a reader is they are free to choose what to read. Why being forced to engage when one finds no interest in the content? This will definitely ruin Steemit, as no one who is a serious reader and a producer of content likes to feel they must read posts which add no value to their personal encyclopedia. Personally, I was away for a week because I was sick, and I took my time to read some good stuff for which I am not given a cent. In the end, what moves creators and their readers/audience is not the money but gratification; and it is not my word but the wisdom of thousands of years of "literatures" on this planet. I had forgotten a little about that but it came to me again as I read in my sick bed.

I'm working every day to make Steemit a nice place to me. Does it sound selfish? It is, a little. But it's not a sin. It's good for the platform that its users feel happy to be here and produce/consume content, and upvote what they like, and engage if they feel like doing it. If users who produce content receive remuneration based on the quality of their posts, they will stay.

John and Mary were not engaging because they were busy writing daily posts of whatever content, not necessarily good, not necessarily something the other Johns and Maries enjoy or need to read. Now John and Mary must engage and write even more posts. I don't see how this is going to get better.

Oh, I wish I could say so many other things but this comment is getting too long. So I will only say I appreciate your concern and thank you for this post, which I read with pleasure while having my morning coffee ☕❤️