I appreciate your analysis, I really do.
Unfortunately it only underscores my decision to pull involvement with Steemit. The services you listed do a positive thing, but in the face of overwhelming odds I don't see how it can make much of a difference.
The platform is being gamed heavily, and it will take more than a few stalwart defenders to make any headway. Creating accounts is simple, so you never run out of parasites.
Its an asymmetrical war, and a few dedicated bots and human curators aren't going to win it -- unless the platform itself changes to make parasitic behavior non-profitable.
I dont think you should pull your involvement with Steemit, dont think about the money, think about the community and if steemit adds any value
Or think about the money and get your investment off this site, which is a pit of colluding vipers with all kinds of lot of snaky behavior. Not much to be proud of when much of the underlying behavior is fully revealed.
Come back and stay for community is a decent idea. Community has nothing to do with the $$. So I come back occasionally to enjoy the community, but you couldn't pay me to leave more than a small pittance sitting on the site.
I'd pull your money off the platform as fast as you can. I did. The whole system is a gamey colluding mess of crony capitalism gone crazy. There is no long term future in a system where 98% of STEEM is controlled by 1% of the accounts.
There is some new and interesting content on the site that you can't find elsewhere easily, so there is still a reason to drop by occasionally and sample some of the better content.
But as an investment, STEEM is a really really bad idea.