I can't agree that it made micro payments obsolete ... you're right in saying that an upvote could be considered as a micro payment, but, as of right now, most users have very little Steem Power, and upvoting does not always give something ...

things like changetip and dogetipbot on reddit have been somewhat popular, indicating that it's not necessarely something people don't like , but it isn't super popular either.

you definitively make some good points though :)