As I'm sure you can see by now, you are not alone. I was going to comment all the thoughts you stirred up, but they've already been covered by the other intelligent folks on this thread.
I am optimistic about the community's ability to self-correct (as long as said community includes people who can make decisions at the platform level, like witnesses and for Christ's sake, steemit, inc.) Like @toocurious said,
...blockchain social media will replace original social media and we'll have Steemit to thank for. It might not be the last one standing, but it will be here for a while.
Yeah, i think issues like these will be what keeps steemit from being number one or maybe in the top echelon. I too believe that steemit will be around for a long time, i just dont know how many new people will be joining steemit after other new blockchain social media company (like appics, a social media company built on the steem network) become popular. I am sure those companies will be more on top of issues like this, and they will be more user friendly too. Its kind of sink or swim here in steemit.