My point of view is, there are many anarchists who post conspiracy theories. That talk could also get this site banned in many countries. Yet I do not see people rushing to censor that content. Why? Because it provides value to the Steemit community to keep those content producers even if their opinions don't line up with the opinions of various governments or "global elites" as some might say.
Copyright is a legal issue and because Steemit.com is in the US it is vulnerable to all sorts of legal disputes including threats by the SEC due to the SMT, but even if that did happen the site will appear outside of the jurisdiction of those agencies.
The whole basis for why Steemit is different from other blogging platforms is censorship resistance. I do agree with you that plagiarism provides no value because it's not even offering the opinions or commentary of the blogger on the content. I just don't think a case of plagiarism should be handled the way it was handled in this case, and this is not the first instance of this.
It's becoming a pattern now where it at least seems that some new bloggers are looking for any flaw or mistake or problem they can find in established bloggers, and then instead of bringing it to the attention of the established blogger to explain why it's a problem, instead they choose to blog about it and make it out to be a huge conspiracy.
If it's plagiarism (which is a problem) then leave a comment, downvote the post, alert a whale and get the post demonetized if you can prove deliberate plagiarism. But that isn't what happened here.
This post has the title: "Ned's pre mined SP is being used to promote Steem abuse!", which makes it seem like some giant conspiracy with Ned involved. I have a problem with the tactics being used because it's the sort of tactics to destroy a community rather than grow it.
The reason I have such strong opinions? Just a week ago I was accused of "copy paste" by a person who never even read my articles and thought I was getting too much money from "auto votes".
I invite you to be a judge, read some of my articles, and tell me if you think I copied and pasted anything.
Article of accuser: https://steemit.com/writing/@cmoljoe/my-complain-about-auto-votes-on-example-of-dana-edwards-and-why-are-auto-votes-killing-steemit
My blog: https://steemit.com/@dana-edwards
And that is the problem. Anyone who posts frequently even if it is original content can be accused of "copy paste", even if they cite sources in their articles and followed every rule. Occasionally you do find a true example of plagiarism but innocent bloggers are being discouraged by these witch hunts and worst of all it makes the platform less fun.
People are so focused on the money that they forget about community in these times. Oh well, if that happens there are other places to blog, and also there are as I said before other ways to support the community other than to write if people aren't good enough at writing. Lets hope SMTs save the day and allow people more options to add value to Steem.