Steemit can afford to reward bloggers for one very simple reason - because of a massive injection of long term funding from the whales.
Actually I don't think they invested in anything apart from some cheap mining equipment, and then mined in the early instamine period before steemit was opened - all the "wealth" was accrued in about a month. Since then, users speculating and buying steem is what has created the price, and hence the value of the project.
Initially, yes. The money has to come from somewhere. But once it is famous money can get into it fast. Look at Facebook. It is a viable business model. But whales have a very big responsibility in making it work or not.
That's certainly true of the founders and the initial miners. But I meant on the long run - the goal is to attract people to invest in Steem Power.
they have to make it work for us who believe.