I beg to differ about trending. If you think about advertising, from commercials (which cost a lot of money), to everything else around us is one big advertisement. If I pay $300 I can get on a trending page that has millions of eyeballs. If I pay $300 for google I won’t get near the front page. Google also won’t give me back $300 plus 1-10% back on my investment either. I honestly think the trending page gets hated on more than anything but that’s only if you listen to other people and not take in what’s its worth to YOU! At the end of the day this is all subjective. just because you think it should be a certain way doesn’t make you the man in charge or make you the person that knows what he is talking about. Everybody has their own experience with Steem and for the most part of what you said is true... but trending is pretty dope and I’ll pay attention to someone investing in theirselves rather than someone posting free all the time waiting for upvotes