I know exactly what you mean. I try to 'keep it real' and sometimes have controversial views but I am also very aware of how detrimental it can be to be too outspoken on here. Making friends can really boost you up, but making enemies can bring you down fast.

I'm not familiar enough with the community and inner ongoings in Steemit. I do catch some of it from the sidelines, but don't really do my best to follow it indepth. I do think it's a problem though. Not so much right now (even though it's sad that it happens), as these are incidental occurings, but if STEEM is to grow this behaviour is going to be inevitably copied by larger whales (institutions, corporations) to do exactly the same thing to content which they do not like.

Wether it's a case of 'That's how STEEM is supposed to work' or not is up for debate, but from my own perspective it's not a sustainable situation for the long term.

Honestly I am a bit disappointed in the fact that it's so hard to figure out what's going on with STEEM development. I'm not sure Ned is paying attention to these issues, there is little communication. SMT's are great, but let's fix the core concept too where it's necessary.