I think that you've made some excellent points and hopefully other users will read this and add their thoughts too. The "voluntary" element not being voluntary at all is a good point. In response to chriddi's original post, I wrote:

So Steemit Inc. is making you choose - use UpVu and bid-bots which guarantee you an upvote - or play the club5050 lottery and hope that you get one.

Neither of which are resulting in good content creation.

Or the 3rd option of ignoring all of the bull-shit and just enjoying your little fiefdom 🙂

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

You're welcome - you know that I admire the hard work that you and @belenguerra put in to the Writing and Reviews community.