There are those MLM elements to Steemit. No doubt about it. But there are a couple things that, IMO, make Steemit considerably different from pyramid schemes (which are illegal, though MLMs are not).

One is that in an MLM, I'm paid only on the people below me in the system. You could look at that like a follower count, but I routinely get half or more of my upvotes from people NOT following me, so that's a significant difference. If that's an MLM, then the grocery store is one of those, too.

Two is that rewards can be--and are--handed out by the whales without regard to following. It's only happened to me once, but my second post was @curie upvoted, and I had $75 all of a sudden. That can't happen in an MLM.

The biggest difference, to me, is that pyramid schemes depend on taking money from the newcomers to pay the people on the top. So let me ask you, what money has been taken from you? Anything? Have you made a big investment and had the money vanish, transferred to someone else? No. That's not how Steemit works.

The bigger fish get bigger rewards, but they aren't taking them from you. It's part of the community's generated pool. You do--I do, too--get a lot less of it than others, but where is that NOT true in the world? And what's preventing you and me from becoming a bigger fish? Anything?

A lot of what you've said here is true, and few of us haven't felt exactly the way you do. But I think there are some fairly significant differences between scams and Steemit, which is why I'm in for the long haul here.