This post comes at a right time for me. I have felt a little disillusionment, especially as the price of Steem has gone down. But I never looked at Steemit in the frame you presented. First, the concept of the loss of users being a good thing as it will lessen the chaff and bring to surface dedicated users (future dolphins) is something that I can relate to. Where Steemit will be in 2-3 years is the big question that these future dolphins will understand, as they will have stuck with the site for that long (if it makes it, which I believe it will). Gaining followers is actually a bit of a steady process. In the last month that I posted heavily versus the current month of non-posting, I gained followers throughout the whole time pretty consistently. This tells me that people are still reading articles much longer after they are published... they are just not upvoting them. I really don't see how this will stop... in 2-3 years, I will have the same amount of followers as some high reputation content creators, even if I do not post every day. The second point made in the comments section is that the site is in beta and not built for minnows yet. This is another idea I can relate to. It puts everything in perspective. If I stick to it, in 2-3 years when the site is built for minnows and I am a dolphin, my contributions will be highly valued. It is helpful to see the beta in a different light... first whales, then dolphins, finally minnows.