The burning does provide a certain value to the blockchain as it reduce the inflation. The real problem is that the created value is (IMO) far less than what could be achieved with better reward distribution to users + better trending page. The current trending page is not really better than that it used to be with bid bots. I honestly think it trending had more variety and better posts before EIP.

At the time I constantly advocated that SMT development + a treasury system should take priority over everything else. At least let's hope for the best in the future.
!trdo