Well to a large extent yes, because I actually started out purely as an investor (albeit a small one). I bought the $250 worth of STEEM because I thought it would go up in value based on what I learned about the platform. I actually ended up signing up for the site because I needed an account to be able to power up. I'm pretty sure I would have signed up anyway, but technically that was the reason I did it.

From a voting perspective, it didn't really do much. Up until recently, even when I had 10,000 SP - I was only adding a few pennies to people's posts when I voted. It wasn't until the 'whale experiment' started (run by abit and smooth) that having a moderate amount of SP actually made a difference in your voting. HF 19 changed it so that it was handled at the blockchain level (via linear rewards). These days, buying a small to moderate amount of SP can actually make some difference.

I think the $250 also helped because I always looked at the site from the perspective of an investor. We all 'own' a stake in the platform, so it is in everybody's best interest to make it succeed. I think the more people who have that perspective the better.