Some good thoughts here! That part about people pocketing money and not following through on their verbal agreement is theft... there is no other way to state it and those people should be called out on it.
Curation guilds have helped tremendously. When I first started it was near impossible to get noticed. That's not the case anymore. I think as more guilds pop up and as more whales donate their voting power the platform will only get better and more "fair".
Sometimes people just forgot about it, I guess. Which is why we have contracts..
It's nice seeing that you're continuing your journey on Steemit. A few short months, felt like forever eh?
It really has felt like much longer... this place was vastly different just three months ago and I anticipate it will look vastly different just three months from today. Hopefully in a good way :)