I agree with the things you pointed out, friend. I don't think these clubs are the proper way to make Steemit grow either. As far as we've seen with this and the Communities of the Month program, all this only leads to power and votes concentrated in just a bunch of people. Which, of course, are always the same users.

I've felt really bad towards the club5050 thing, as they've introduced it as a 'volunteer' thing... and turns out it was everything but voluntary. If you don't join, there's no support for you in any way. As well as that, in the latest update made to CryptoAcademy rules, they've also asked people to buy Steem and power it up if they didn't reach a minimum of 150 SP powered up, which of course, leads to more discomfort.

I believe noone talks about this out of fear, as talking your mind would probably mean being exposed to zero votes. And we should also take into account that mostly all users from Steemit come from countries that are facing very difficult economical situations (as an example, Venezuela or even my country, Argentina). Due to this, Steemit represents a very important income for them and they depend on those Steem to live.

I understand that perhaps their idea for club5050 was to actually reduce the supply of Steem in the market... but i'm not really sure this is the way. I've checked some posts that have been voted and content quality has decreased a lot and, as a community admin, I get to see really talented users that give out their best in their post... and yet, there's no way we can provide enough support for them to feel appreciated. That's really frustrating when you've spent countless hours and effort in trying to make your community grow.

I really hope my opinion doesn't create any sort of misunderstanding, as I really love Steemit and I'd love to see it grow. But with this kind of this, it's becoming harder and harder.

PS: Thank you so much for mentioning me in the comment :)