I agree with your co-owner mindset, and that we shouldn't expect Steemit Inc to do everything for us.

One example is new users. Everyone is expecting Steemit Inc to be the only ones paying for new user signups. This is crazy, there are potentially infinitely more sockpuppets than real people, and they cannot be expected to validate everyone in the world.

There are over 200 whale and orca account users. It's in our financial interest as much as Steemit Inc to bring in new, real users and grow the network. It would be easier if tens or hundreds of us could be validating and signing up new users than the handful of people Steemit Inc can expect to be able to hire. If they become real users, the delegated Steem Power will be returned to us anyway once they start receiving rewards.