I get what youre saying, but it seems to me exactly the way it will seem to everyone else: like youre arguing a technicality. When the whales at steem are referring to their writers as employees. When you have a guy who says "yeah the owners recruited me to the site thats why i made 20K on a post" thats not people talking about whatever they want.

And also, the fact that talking points get passed down to the main recruits could not be clearer.

So what you have a bunch of people, recruited to "add value to the site" being paid to hit specific talking points.

Now I don't have a problem with this happening, though i think it could be handled in a less hamfisted manner, but denying it when its obviously going on makes the platform look like a scam.