the amount is irrelevant at this point.

you'd think that they could do a few quick Google searches and figure out how to extract and develop those metrics for themselves, at a much lower cost than a perpetual 1 Steem per week?

You can also make pizzas cheaper yet, people still order them. There is something to be said about propensity for ease of use and convenience.

When it comes to the price, how much do people spend on Netflix, spotify, newspapers and coffee? There are 15,000 accounts with more than 500 there are something like 2500 with more than 5000. so, if 500 of them decided that at this point, 1 steem was okay it would be ~25,000 Steem a year for the application. Let's say they take 50% and distribute 50 to the contributors it is still a lot more than the near zero they are getting now. that 12,500 Steem at 10 dollars is 125,000 dollars, not a bad year of work.