On EOS it's normal for block producers to provide A+ tools, why not here as well?)

EOS block producers are paid in a month what Steem top 20 witnesses are paid in a year (more or less, not sure of the exact numbers). The resource requirements for EOS are higher, but not that much higher.

It is true this depends on the price to an extent. EOS launched with a heavily marketed and promoted ICO (e.g. signs in Times Square) which attracted an enormous amount of capital and helped to create the high price (and also funded the developer team with billions of dollars without ever needing to sell a single EOS). Steem launched with a ninja-mine which has Steemit dumping millions upon millions of Steem constantly for years just to keep their lights on and doing no marketing, killing the price.

Different models, different inputs, different results.

I wish it weren't so, but if we don't get a ton of Steem-growing output in return for all those millions of ninja-mined Steem that have been dumped and likely will continue to be dumped, destroying the price, we're fucked. And unfortunately we have not been getting it. There is no way for the rest of the ecosystem to replace that lost value on the back of 29c STEEM.

Sorry to be blunt. As you say, optimism vs. realism. Hopefully the situation will improve.