I agree on Starbucks, the coffee is mediocre either, but that was only ment as an example. I get what you are talking about, but i believe thats just a theorethical thought. I don't agree on the outcome. Its not something that is easy profitable. This post here 7$ came from randowhale, so just a couple of cents from the upvotes, because giveaways only attract newbies with a very small accountbalance. Its not a concept that works on its own, but can work if the blog itself has other valueable content. Thats at least what im hoping to see from guys participating. And i understand that people might not like it as a marketing aspect, cause it is actually buying attention instead of convincing with quality, so not contributing quality to steemit, but its also giving people exactly what they want. They might be more motivated with their steem in account, which helps the network in a different way. The more people would do giveaways though, the less effective a single one would be. Botaccounts would exploit guys offering them and there wouldnt be a lot value in even offering. So im quite convinced the "ROI" of "giveaways" would regulate itself.
Still it is an option for newbies to gain there first couple steem until they grow up, its not a get rich thing. Yes it might not be worth mentioned as an important value blogs should include, still im ok with offering it.