i think it was launched at a time when people have already mastered the art of buying an audience on other social media platforms. Not only can you buy followers and comments, you can also pay the company to promote your post. Steemit seemed to be a welcome change from that. However, as someone new to the platform, may be I don't see the damage as much as you do. For me, this is normal to start with. There is promoted content. and I have to find a way to dig out the interesting stuff from the crap. and there are solid enlightening posts on steemit at times.

And lately I have a seen a lot of steemit whales also talking about around the same point - about quality content, about bid bots, about abuse of SP. Your article also links up with those points.

Thanks for sharing your perspective. extremely insightful.