I'll be a bit blunt (and maybe a bit unfair to the founders): What we see on Steemit are the results of runaway non-linear effects. In this case, they were deliberately built as the n^2 rule into the platform but I am not sure the implications were properly understood.
It is human nature to lack a reliable gut feeling for non-linearity. The classic example is the water lily on a pond that doubles in size every day until the whole pond is covered after 30 days. Very few people correctly answer the question "when was half the pond covered"? They might guess day 15, when, in reality, it is day 29.