Thanks for stating this well and eloquently @krnel... I have a very similar piece "in the works," which includes a couple of "real-life" cautionary tales to illustrate just how stupid and ineffective the whole F4F business is. I'll hold off for a few days till this has run its course...

Ultimately, do people want "followers" or actual readers? I suppose that depends on who you are, and why you are motivated to even be on Steemit...

To which end... unfortunately the "new generation" of minnows is starting to include more and more "clicking for cash cockroaches" which can be devastating for a platform... and we are only seeing the very tip of that iceberg, at 2000-ish new accounts per day; now multiply to a place where there are several million of them, all here purely on the "How To Get Free Money On The Internet!" (overuse of caps added for satirical effect) trail.

It's kinda sad... I never used flags for anything but blatant abuse in the past, but I'm more and more spreading a few about for repeated use of copy-pasta in comments, typically ending with the upvote-for-upvote and follow-for-follow crap.

I'm all about freedom of speech and all that and I wouldn't actually give a toss if I hadn't been part of 50-odd content platforms that went TU as a result of this kind of stuff being allowed to proliferate, unchecked... But I'm basically SELFISH! I still want there to BE a Steemit, 5, 8, 10 years from now...