At times like this, it's important to take stock of the non-monetary value that has come from the experience and focus on that. In my case, steemit enabled my buddy @jakevanderark to move to Chile and start collaborating with me on screenplays and that one thing alone made it all worthwhile. It also helped one of our Fort Galt members, @onceuponatime to come and visit us down here (he introduced me to the platform in the first place, which was pretty awesome). Even as I watch the value of steem fall and the platform itself devolve into the Doom Porn Infomercial Channel, I can always focus on the good things and thank the founders for what they've created. As you said, it's absolutely an experiment and I still say it's a great one but there's a long way to go before it's the sort of thing that I can stand behind and vouch for as a finished product. I was here for the crazy days in the beginning too, and of course we all knew that things would balance out over time, and they have... but as @mindhunter alluded to, the founders still retain the power to mold the community according to their whims and in principle, this is not a good thing. Decentralization is a key principle that is touted in the whitepaper and it's part of why many of us believe in steemit.

Having said all that, I'm happy to keep helping out around here as much as I can with the caveat that it's very much an experimental work-in-progress. I think of it as a fun little hobby project that may or may not develop into something really worth championing some day. At the very least, it has demonstrated a model for other developers to learn from and with a little luck, we'll one day have a whole bunch of alternatives to choose from.

In the mean time, I'm seriously re-evaluating my quiet, gentlemanly approach to certain matters... I'd gladly sacrifice my reputation points and future earnings in order to help clean things up for everyone else and give Steemit a better chance for mass adoption and success.