Well, also consider that many projects like this rely heavily on delegators. @dtube gets 97% of its SP via delegation. (77k self vs 2M delegated) For @steem-ua, this number is a staggering 99.85%. (530 SP is nothing) Close to 97% for @smartsteem. 87% for @trufflepig but that's a relatively small supporter.

And delegators are like investors: if the product creator acts against their will, they pull out.