1. What is your vision for Sreemit, 5-10 years from now? I want to still be on here. I am hoping by then the junk will be vastly eliminated. I do think there should be some sort of limit on actual posts per day. Because one user a while back had 22+ blogs "written" in a 7 hr period. They were all copy paste jobs and poorly done at that. Some had dangerous info /suggestions in them that would've been harmful for diabetics, or just flat out misinfo. I called this person out, they had no good answers for their posts just that it wasn't their opinion....Okay then why'd you post it? I digress.
I think you are right that STEEMIT is like a big ship. As such there will be lots of various circles of like minded people. Likeminded for the good or bad of steemit. Yes, some people will be offput by shitty, spammy content. I am. I can't tell you how many thoughtless comments I've received on my posts bevause people didn't actually READ it. Some were flat out sexist and rude. So I flagged those comments. I think flagging should be in place. Truth is, i really don't think there's one person on here flagged into the single digits that got there via "unfair" means. They may be bitter and continue trolling around, but keep getting ignored/downvoted and eventually give up/go away. That's for the "minor offenders".......
For people who have known histories of unlawful things like um, being directly tied to someone's suicide for instance, that's not something i want around here. Just a random example. I feel if someone can fairly explain a bad situation that's good. But if you are ignoring questions of your moral integrity that's a red flag Right there. Why can't you address it?
There needs to be something in place for the extreme circumstances of bad or really fishy people. To ensure the safety of the community. I mean or ship. If one part is burning, eventually the whole ship will.
As i mentioned above, there will always be various circles and groups of People. I personally can't stand the superficial crap that's going around like "watch me go to the grocery store " i think we need sustenance. But as i said there will always be the groups that enjoy that sort of thing. Or the braggy look what i Just bought at the mall posts, or look at my bank account. ..digressing again.

2. Or do you even think that far ahead? think i just covered that. Lol

3. Do you believe self-upvoting, short spammy comments and vote begging will hurt Steemit in the LONG run?
Selfupvoting - I do not think self upvoting of your own post that you put effort into is bad. That's just me. If I wouldn't upvote it, why should i expect someone else to? In other words, i think My post is good enough it deserves my own vote.

Self upvoting of your own comments though? That's a bit different. By the time you are in the comment phase you are more or less conversing with your followers. To me, upvoting a comment then seems kinda like saying "hey guys, i like what i just said." Especially bad of all you said was "good post, follow me, I'll follow you" there will always be the superficial folks upvoting their own lame comments though. Although as you pointed out it is different if you put a lot of thought and effort into a comment. At that point, I would like others the be upvoting my comment though if it was that good. Lol.

The vote beggers and these voting cliques will end up getting bored in my opinion. Simply bevause that behavior isn't earning them much, if anything

4. Moreover, does Steemit "matter" to you in the long run, or do you see it more as a place to make some "grocery money" RIGHT NOW? as far as me personally i think I've made this clear. However I'm extremely bothered, even concerned, for the people thinking steemit will do that for them. I saw a post a while back from a relatively new steemian who decided to Just sell all their stuff and steem only. If you are that confident in yourself, good on ya, but don't count your chickens before they hatch
STEEMIT is merely supplemental income to me at this point. I enjoy the interactionsand all the cool people like @denmarkguy that I've met
I'm in this thing for the long haul. It actually matters to me to contribute, learn from others,
encourage the good, discourage the bad, have People enjoy my posts, or maybe someone even learns something from me.

5. Do you think these issues can "solve themselves" if we simply "mute" or ignore the offenders? Or does the community need to take action? Or does some of the underlying code need to be rewritten to prevent certain windows for exploitation?
The "minor offense" trollers will as i said be eliminated by the community the way they are right now. By the fact they won't get anywhere.

People suspected of serious crimes should have their accounts plac3d on hold AND hold it to a community vote?

To discourage the IMMEDIATE *good post follow me" shit we are getting on things that took us two hours to write....I think the developers should implement some timed mechanism so when someone clicks your post they have to be on it for say at least 2 minutes before they can comment to try and encourage people to READ