"The permissionless element was a big part of the reason why I started creating so much content on Steemit.com. I didn't have to wait for some big company to give me permission to support a project I believed in, and more importantly, I didn't have to wait for them to reward me for doing so."

Well said.

Indeed, permissionlessness is well known to be the key aspect of economic growth. (Narrow interests exist in the world. If one must ask permission, the answer, mostly independent of the merits of what is being asked for, is most often just "no".)

Permissionlessness is why markets, even if not exactly nirvana or pure sugar, outperform just about everything else on the planet. Most other social media platforms exist in the market. They are even valued highly by the market. But unlike blockchain based social media, they're not - in spirit - aligned with the market.