Very salient points made in addressing ongoing changes on the platform. Your observation about how the mainstream social media giants are able to attract and retain members hits the nail on the head. Ease of use and content discovery are main drivers in keeping on those platforms. Community engagement also plays a critical role in this process. One might ask, what is in it for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., to offer low-key friction entry and interaction for their respective user bases? That's because those users are the product and selling information about those users is big business; and with the exception YouTube in some cases, users receive no compensation for their contributions. Nevertheless, people return to those platforms because of the overall user experience. In my opinion, Steemit should not be about a money grab as such an environment would limit its appeal and severely impact its future prospects. Technicals are very important but if the UI and UX are neglected, then the vision/mission will likely fail. Let's hope the Steemit team will take the points being made in this thread to heart and make a true effort to make Steemit the social media platform of choice.