Steemit is basically a platform that pays for ads. Steem Power is used to boost visibility as well as payout.
Since steem power is worth money, it is actually used to pay for payouts + advertising space just by keeping it powered up. The reason it's so hard to onboard new users to steemit is because the main page is filled with more adverts than any other "social media" site.
I agree with the rest of your post, just disagree that steemit doesn't have ads. Due to the political system created by the existence of whales everything that gets a good payout is an ad.
So we're advertising in an attempt to sell our ideas, stories, thoughts, copied words etc etc. It's monetised socialisation - no idea if this can work, but look forward to finding out.
"Steemit is basically a platform that pays for ads."
Not yet. That is the missing piece of the puzzle that everyone is speculating on. We all know attention can be monetized but so far it hasn't been done on Steemit.
I agree it's not monetising attention. Just monetising the advertising itself. It wouldn't be that way if people with less power were allowed to use their downvote without retaliation from the more powerful, but it didn't turn out that way.