I'll echo many of the comments here - I concur, and feel the same way about almost everything I write. It's only the support of the teamaustralia community and @comedyopenmic that have stopped my enthusiasm from dropping further.

I'll paraphrase the comment that even the arch-free-marketeer and bidbot enthuiast, @yallapapi, agreed with: If I write something for steemit, it won't get a good payout and hardly anyone will read it. Sure, academic journals and the independent news site I write for don't pay much either, but they do reach my intended audience of journalists and potential future employers in a way that steemit simply cannot match.

Furthermore, I can get more views by paying other social media channels than by paying bidbots (and maybe that's why the views counter is gone).