I like your sentence: "Steemit didn't introduce "value" into social media, it just chose to include the users and make them shareholders rather than cash cows".
But for a lot of us, the money comes only second or third. Many of us are here for the opportunity to speak with people all around the world. To write and to read, to give comments and receive them. Maybe I speak for myself, but I know there are a lot who think the same.