some fresh stats from Aquarium (aka "FIsh Farm") of SteemIt:

In 2 & a half years we have only created about 10k users who hold more than 500 SP, that doesn't work well for a currency or for building a consensus system.

as I remember correctly, those who reached 500 SP level are called "minnows"? :)

which only illustrates for me my main conclusion: that is mostly an Investment platform first if all, on which not all are able (can afford) and / or willing to actually INVEST that much to even qualify as so called "minnow". 500 SP at present STEEM exchange rate is around $400 ?

well, there we go: looks like a lot (or majority?) rarely / hardly or very slowly even manage to achieve that level ... but become sort of a "fodder" for those bigger fishes. :D
(well, yeah, smaller ones perhaps also nip-nip some bits and morsels from decomposing carcasses of those which gave up ...)