The thing that is being overlooked here when you assert this

When you take the existing system we have, and suddenly force investors to share only, and to stop profiting, you're sending a signal to the market. This signal says that this obscure and abstract blockchain community social network will only be kind to certain types of investors.

is that most crypto investments rely solely on the valuation of the crypto itself going up. There is no passive growth for simply staking it, no growth from casting votes on others creation. No growth from creating and having others vote you a part of the pool. All of that is atop the same way most crypto investors gain.

There is also something to be said for ones wallet address being a name and not a long string of characters. Something to be said for not losing everything the second a hack occurs, unlike other projects. Something to be said for the potential SMT may bring to the table.

I don't know much about the Steem Engine tribes, but seems they could be used by anyone with the monetary means and desire to set up their own platform to allow whatever forms of freedom from echo chambers, downvotes etc that they would wish. If there were a demand for such a vision, there would by default be a demand for the tokens created on a side chain. But, it has not escaped my notice that for all the anger over censorship on the mainstream avenues, you never see the money ponied up to create platforms welcome to those censored authors. Perhaps the coming year will see that come to fruition, and could be an off shoot of this very chain that offers rewards to those participating.

Hope all has been well. Glad you are sticking around, even if just for the lolz.