I think more than anything it was the price of Cryptocurrencies crashing that made people leave. Steem prices crashed making it difficult for starters to have decent compensation. Combine this with RC and it's difficult.
I remember some of my blogs, I would spend hours on a blog and end up with 2 to 10 cents worth of Steem. That was when Steem was worth 2 or 3 dollars. It was also when RC wouldn't limit me from posting and commenting a lot if I wanted to change things quickly without investing.