Hey @billbutler,

first off we are noticing the same payouts as you are and we guess it is mostly because we improved the way we calculate our votes to be consistent with the weird rounding of steem. This cuts into investor profits (and also our profits obviously) but we guess these are profits that should never have happened and we are glad we fixed it.

Secondly you can't compare leasing SP with delegating to us. Delegating to us means we use your SP to upvote. We can't lease it again. That is one of the limitations the delegation system has. If the lease is not profitable enough for you, we can suggest you to try out our new sell vote feature or delegating on the market.

We certainly don't earn $14 - $17 on you, we earn exactly 10% while you earn 90%. So we earn under 1SBD per day on your lease.

Delegation payments are bound to fluctuate and we don't offer any fixed rates for it. We sell the votes and split the pot each day. With sell vote you now have a second option that allows you to be separate from other investors earning your fixed share for each vote you sell.