I have come across a few critics who haven't actually tried it yet. I think this is because there really is no way to describe steemit or steem in a way that doesn't ring alarm bells, especially when its so legitimately flawed and underdeveloped as it currently is. What can you say?

• Get paid to post (but also get flagged and your money removed)
• uncensored (but your stuff can be greyed out and reputation destroyed)
• State whatever you like (but be aware that flag wars can ruin you)
• decentralised (but steemit itself is cecntralised)
• people are nice (only to get upvotes, and actually some of the biggest users on the platform are constantly bickering and abusing each other for everybody to see every day)
• Still in beta so it has a lot of potential (has been in beta for over 2 years with no sign of ever leaving beta, and progress has been slower than any other online progress ever seen)

And so on...

lol