Money and power are powerful drivers of human behavior. When a system rewards financially a certain behavior, that is what you will see within that system.
On the surface your sophisticated mental frame is perfect to be successful on Steemit, to be a sharing, caring individual that will commit to behavior that is rewarding for the whole Steem eco-system on the long term, hoping that as a community we will reward great content and hoping the great content will draw in the masses.
But no, Steem money and Steem power are too powerful drivers are and apparently they determine how 'things are supposed to work'..
Well it is a stake based consensus system, so it has to be financially based, and I am totally into money aspect. I just think fast money is rarely worth it, so I would prefer to invest in the platform as well.
For all the shortcomings the platform exhibits, I still think it's in fact the best incentivized social content platform in existence today.