I think it's useful to consider that every aspect of the platform is constrained by rules, most of which are code.

Changing the code doesn't remove rules. It just changes them.

It's the specific rule that has particular consequences, so it's not whether or not we have rules, but what those rules are that matters.

There just isn't a way to prevent folks from posting more than four posts, because they can just post from another account. Neither is there certainty regarding the utility of any given code, because the real world throws sucker punches and devs are blindsided by clever criminals.

I'm all about free society. I do think the platform came out swinging for that, and it's evolution since then reflects the influences the real world has impacted it with, including that Steemit Inc. is a for profit concern and needs to serve it's market.

The market for Stinc is the Steem. The majority of Steem is held by very few people, and the interests of whales are vastly different from the interests of minnows. Steemit code starkly reflects that.