I agree with you both. Also, note that "SMTs" are coming -- Steemit Media Tokens, which will allow for the creation of many other similar social media sites. Ones perhaps in which "downvotes" cost three times the power, or, perhaps aren't allowed.
Appics is the first, http://www.appics.com/
minds.com should be a natural, they already have a payment system - and they give you free "steem" for just hanging out there, so you can boost your or other folks' posts.
They're lacking a crypto and might be interested - they are a full-fledged social network even though still in beta as well, lots of political youtubers fled there during the recent purges ;)
I'm also mainly on Google Plus since years, it's a decent network which mostly guarantees that your posts have much greater influence on the Search Engine