RE: WHY ARE SOME OF STEEMIT BEST WRITERS LEAVING? ARE YOU FEELING IGNORED? WHAT CAN WE DO TO INCREASE RETENTION OF CREATIVE WRITERS? DO WE HAVE ROOM FOR SIMPLE SOCIAL POSTS? HOW CAN WE BALANCE BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIA AND CREATIVE CONTENT?

Wow! I would have never expected such an honest post from you.
I thought that you were one of these Steemit whales who prioritizes the profits (by curating trending posts) and nepotism/favouritism over the betterment of quality and equality of this social platform.
Many authors are leaving because they cannot stand neoptism/favoritism.
It is also about simple math - the working hour to reward ratio.
Is it a point to spend 2 hours (often much longer, sometimes you spend all day writing) Steemit customized article and article and get 10SBD (8-9 USD) reward for it, which amounts to 4-5USD per hour? Or maybe it is better to write such article for some other site/social media for better reward?
Or maybe it is just better to work part time for some local fastfood or cafe and get paid even more 8-9 USD/hour?
We all have to calculate these.