Since you asked for opinions, and the situation didn't improve since I wrote this 47 days ago, let me quote myself from Musing, in answer to the question Are ads the thing Steem needs for its future sustainability?

No. Targeted ads are what we want to get away from, while untargeted ads are ugly and unprofitable. What Steemit, Inc. needs to do is to convince regular businesses to invest in Steem, in order to increase the value of our platform and the price of our coin. In particular:

• Convince online vendors to use Steem as a means of payment, with fast transactions, no fees and a convenient username. But first, to make this useable for new users, the onboarding process needs to be improved.

• Convince investors that delegated Steem Power is an ingenious way to invest in startups without losing their money.

• Convince companies and organisations that produce a lot of content to publish it on Steem, using our search engine karma, and to buy Steem Power to make it more visible. Not just media, but also PR firms, financial research firms, NGOs, unions, churches, political parties, archives, museums, universities, professional football clubs, government agencies and departments, local governments etc. They will need some hand-holding to learn how to attract readers on Steem and how to promote posts. An added benefit is that they will bring part of their own audience with them.

Unfortunately, the company wasn't up to this task already, and firing 70% of the team won't help. Realistically, a sustainable future will have to come from having apps and witnesses pay a larger share of the infrastructure cost.