I've read posts that basically described the price spike as an investment round to generate funding to build out the site and fund other projects

People who say that are just trying to find excuses for the price drop.

If steem wasn't so inflationary the platform would be a perpetual source of funding and the system would never run out of money to fund new projects
That's what attracted me at first, I saw for the first time a self funding model where the blockchain issued new money to basically fund itself. Imagine if bitcoin miners used part of their revenue to fund bitcoin startups, bitcoin would have a lot more marketing going, more quality products and be overall more healthy.
Steem could have been that if the system allowed speculators and investors to take part, unfortunately the inflation and the 2 year lock period prevent them to enter.