I agree with you in every single word. Mostly #newsteem didn't change anything, let see who fight with bid bots? Most of them are former beneficiaries of these bots, who earned money from them, and now when the curator's award has doubled, they benefit from 'manual' curate.
As you wrote there's no care about content. How to encourage new users, if they put efforts to make great post and income is some pennies, and they see that others constantly earning big upvote for shitty content.