Congratulations on this mature article full of insights.
From a systemic (or philosophical) point of view, any system is vulnerable.
Take a country and its borders, for example. If you want to completely secure the border, have total and watertight security for all people and all times, to keep out any aggressor or abuser, you end up with a totalitarian state. For not only evil does not get through, but neither does good. Such a state not only locks out the others, it also locks its own. Exit and entry policies must be rigid and restrictive for such a solid cause.
Steemit could be seen in a similar way. It's a permeable system and has not yet reached a state where we modern Internet people would call it
"relevant " (as to the number of users). It still could change a lot when a certain amount of people use it and recommend it to others. From my subjective sensory options I'd say: We have a lot of creators/entrepreneurs here and fast money making wannabes but not so much consumers and readers.
From my point of view the hopes are hanging high and therefore can crush down deep.
In any case, the constant looped criticism is part of Steemit's problem, just as it is part of the solution. Critical view of trending pages and misconduct is good. But it is pointless if this criticism does not also entail something concrete like working with the communities here. And more important is to look at your own business and ask yourself what you want. The disappointment is painful, but necessary.
And you know that the really, really sad thing is?
If I was autovoted to triple digits to shut up, I most likely would.
Why?
Because I'm human. Nothing supernatural. Just a human. And so are you.
Not sure, if I believe you. Not from what you previously said in this article. If that would be true than your process of insight would be quite useless, in fact, now even worse. After seeing through so many layers and arrive in reality it would be a shame to show so little backbone.
What do you say: would you like to be tested and come into a situation where you must decide on your ethics? Isn't that the ultimate question we ask ourselves while holding our thumbs that Anakin Skywalker does not turn to the dark side?