I agree. People want to get on with their friends and not be penalized for upvoting them in small quantitites.

It's really that simple: photography people with other photography people, finance people with finance people, techies with techies, etc., etc.

And that's the basis of curation too, or how do I curate a cooking article if I know nothing about cooking?

"Communities" in the real world of social networks are extremely small in general, and that's what people want.

I'll bet most would say, "Why do I want to be on HIVE if my friends aren't there?"

And when you tell them they have to pay to get on, and then they only get a small percentage of the rewards that the big posts get because their upvote is so small, I'll bet the first thing out of their mouth is: "Do I look stupid?"