I found the article discussing Reddit and Medium particularly interesting. I think Reddit is an example of a platform where the vast majority of users offer little to no value, at least on the content creation side. Most of them would be non-earners here. If Steemit wants to replace some of the main forms of social media, it will probably need to find a way to encourage participation of those who may not necessarily provide good content, because users are indeed a key metric, at least by many, for valuation.

Also, despite the lack of technical censorship here, I am certainly more careful of what I say, as I am concerned about the potential for things you discuss such as witch hunts for comments out of context, etc.