I'm expecting to get hammered for being blunt, but SteemIt is not a very good investment - for most crypto traders or people looking to get a good return on investment. It's an interesting experiment in Social Media & cryptos, and it has achieved interesting results. But, most Steemians will never get wealthy due to making investments in Steem Power. Many of the posts on the Trending and Hot pages are only there because the authors have spent $250 - $500, per post, to promote their own content. So much for "good content being rewarded." I'm not saying it can't happen for some people, some of the time, because it does. But, if you're "too successful," and figure out how to beat these whales at their own game - then you're going to become a target.

SteemIt is a wealth-generating machine (upvotes). But, it is also paired-up with a wealth-destroying maching (downvotes). That seems sketchy to me. Downvotes, Mulitple/Fake accounts, and Bots should be done away with in the next Hard Fork, but I doubt witnesses and whales will allow it - unless they impliment some other way to maintain near total control over the distribution of the daily rewards pool. People who make a lot of money don't usually just up and decide to give it all away to the less fortunate. They may give some, if they really like you and you do/vote they way they want you to. Otherwise, they'll undermine your ability to profit from their system, because they're too busy taking profits themselves.

I understand your position. It's a bad one. Here you're a bit late to the game, power up a bunch of Steem, and come to find out that the earlier adopters have already perfected the art of raping the rewards-pool (through various, round-about means - multiple & alternate accounts, gambling apps, voting-bots, etc.) while hiding/masking their activities. But, if you do some research, you do find that many of the Witnesses and Whales are all involved in one giant circle-jerk: trading votes, etc. And, if someone new comes along and uses the established SteemIt rules to make a profit (i.e. haejin), they catch hell from the whales, because it's eating into their profits. Then these same whales turn around and accuse haejin of "raping the rewards pool." I discovered this hypocrisy early on, and it has prevented me from powering-up any significant amount of Steem Power. (I try to keep mine around 100 SP.) Why would you "invest" with a bunch of people who pay lip-service to "peace, freedom, non-violence, free-speech, and anarchy" when they turn right around and downvote your rewards via nefarious tactics, financial abuse, alternate accounts, and peer pressure???

I stay around SteemIt for the news and the learning. Some people criticise Dan Larimer for leaving SteemIt. I think he moved on because he realized he had designed a flawed system, and trying to "fight" the original investors' greed became a losing proposition at some point along the way. Or, maybe he ran his scam, took his profits, got out when the getting was good, and has moved on to create his next scam? I'd like to think that he's actually trying to develop EOS and SteemIt 2.0 as an improved version of this platform - but that still remains to be seen.

Truth be told, if you're not dedicating your life to becoming a professional SteemIt blogger/vlogger, you're better off powering down and investing in other alt-coins where you don't have to wait 13 weeks to get your money out. SteemIt is sort-of like romper-room for newbie traders. It's a great place to dip your toe in the water and get some experience and knowledge under your belt. But, if you're looking for big ROI, get out there and trade some TRON, NEO, OX, or something else where your ability to create wealth is not subject to the whim of SteemIt trolls, and can not be destroyed by downvotes from big whales - because they don't like your politics, interests, or the fact that you're eating into their ability to take profits.

The most satisfying thing on SteemIt, for me, is taking a big downvote & replying by posting a picture of my stack of physical silver and gold. "Downvote This! I'll check my stack in the morning and see if it got any lighter." It usually shuts up the trolls pretty fast.