I think that on top of the Steem price drop and extremely low daily trade volume, minnows are dying off in their interest because of many unhealthy dynamics that make it hard to succeed, and incredible amounts of spam by newer users trying to chase a quick buck with junk posts. The content is becoming cluttered with repeat material, Youtube cryptocurency videos by people trying to profit off the hard work of others (and more copycats), and even phishing ruses. It's hard to weed through the junk.

Even sincerely engaging on posts like these often don't get much response from the authors to spark further intrigue, thought, and adoption, which I just don't understand. We're asked to follow, upvote and resteem, so that should be returned for equal growth and motivation.

Add in increased reliance on bots to make a post look like it's popular and making money (at a slight profit from the SBD you have to spend to get that illusion), and these numbers above are sadly no surprise to me. I'll Steem on though for the long haul.