I agree with part of what you say, and disagree with others.
I myself really like the concept of steemit (still do) and so I bought $300 SP when I first joined to 'feel' more apart of the community (thought I might get some upvoting power too). Turns out I completely regret buying any SP as I feel it adds 0 value to my account and had nothing to do with being any more apart of the community than being engaged. I also have 2 friends who joined after me, made some great posts - and how have significantly more SP than myself while investing $0.00 financially (they invested their time) vs. my $300. So on that note - I typically advise all my new friends joining not to even worry about buying any STEEM or SP but rather earning it through posts.
To say Steemit people are the same sheeple we have in our society. You know those who watch mainstream propaganda, then they go out and repeat the lie as fact, the lie then gets spread among everyone and eventually becomes the perceived reality... well you kind of lost me at that point. At the end of the day Steemit is still fundamentally one of the better ideas in crypto IMO.