I love thoughtful posts like this. I'm 100% with you that user behavior would be totally different without the $ signs on this website. The reason the $ is there is simple, it's the only incentive that makes people anywhere in the world excited enough to try Steemit.
I'd like to see Steemit incentivize quality discussions. It's easy to gather a lot of upvotes reposting a breaking news article, which is valuable to know that a news post is worth knowing about, but is that really where the value is being created? I personally think that a thoughtful posts with quality discussion would be creating just as much if not more value, even if it doesn't have as many upvotes.
I wrote about this in my recent (and first) post title "DISCUSSION: How will Steemit change the social media landscape and the internet moving forward?" Please come by and share your thoughts with me! Cheers dude. https://steemit.com/steemit/@ynotplay/6wmgmr-discussion-how-steemit-changes-the-social-media-landscape-and-the-internet-forever
Just upvoted and commented on your post. Great article!
I agree that thoughtful posts and meaningful discussions are where the value lives, but at the same time I have to recognize my own preferences. I use social media differently than many people I know. I've had numerous people tell me how much they enjoy following along with the Facebook discussions we get into because they actually matter, whether we're talking about philosophy, voluntaryism, morality, artificial intelligence, etc.
Some people just want to see cat photos and tits.
And that's okay. It really is okay. Social media is just a tool and people will use it to bring joy to their lives. As long as they aren't aggressing against others, I'm all for it.
@ynotplay: For more meaningful discussions, be sure to follow my blog. :)