People on Steemit are overly cordial because they are actually trying to get a vote or something.

You just put all of the users in one basket for a freaking Upvote. As if Steemit is their 'bread n butter'?

To me, that level of behavior is low, pathetic, and a complete lie.

Why would you think so? May be they had a good upbringing. May be you are too used to other social medias and forgot the fact that Steemit is used by more mature users. I am certainly not questioning your wisdom or experience on Steemit because I know you have been here since long and very much involved in the community projects. Just curious to know.

It is much more useful and beneficial to a system to have users be open, honest, and not painting a pretty picture with lies.

Spot on, agreed ! but how do you scale that?