The funding still comes from. Investors propping up the price of steem. At the end of the day, your projects can't get money if steem isn't worth anything, and the only thing steem is worth right now is the attention of its own users. It's a catch 22.

Those outside projects will need to liquidate their earnings in order to operate, so in that sense, I don't think you are correct. You need such large capitol to operate, and having it come directly from steem would mean that you cant rely on it in a large scale.