I have to say, as a new user who really loves the idea of steem and wants it to succeed, it seems like there are some major challenges to getting the rewards system just right.

I think the randomization of what hits the front pageneeds to be a lot higher, because vote buying your way onto the front page then ensures that you get money from other users simply due to the visibility of your content. The same mediocre content can make solid money if it hits the front page and will go no where if it doesn't get an initial pump.

The edge that vote buying gives you right now is primarily an edge in visibility.

With the current system, it seems like a lot of the content is spammy and people basically grubbing for votes. I REALLY want to like steem but honestly, atm I feel like even if you browse "hot" or "trending" a lot of the content is obviously low effort and purely designed to make money. I think overcoming this issue is one of the primary problems steem needs to solve to take off.