try not to laugh at what a failure the donate model is, and calling it donate model is a stretch since a large portion doesn't even go to the author.

Same model as Steem, only hidden.
// You get 1 Steem

• "Cool, can I buy Bitcoins for this?"
• Sure!
• The exchange!
• Cool, Steemit pays me dollars.
  // But wait, Steem doesn't pay in dollars / BTC, Steem pays in tokens. Who pays in dollars / BTC? Investors ...

Steem is a network worse than ZapRead, Publish0x, but without a system based on game theory. The fact that you can't see it means that the system is hiding it perfectly.