I can completely underdstand your thoughts - It feels hard to accept that doing nothing and self-voting would bring soo much more than curating and posting.

However I still hope, that Steemit will grow and that my investement will therefore rise. I see our STEEM as shares in the network and therefore I want to act in a way which, at least in my eyes, benefits the network and therefore the growth of STEEM and ultimately my investement. This is why I f.e. run @welcoming. Not because it earns me so much - But I think it can help my investment and other people at the same time.

Of course, the short term value would be way greater otherwise. But I hope there are more people like you, @droucil, ... and me who think like I think about this. And I think we can succeed in the long run.

It seems hard atm since the abuse is rising - but hey, the prices, user number, ... are doing so as well.

I know, it may seem a little naive to think so - but hey, that's just how I want to look like it.

And still earning decent rewards of course helps with this. Yes, I could earn way more money by abusing than running @welcoming and manually curating a lot with this account. But I prefer decent rewards + the feeling of doing something good over earning more but feeling bad for abusing.