This is an honest question.
I came here to Steemit to blog for pay.
To bring content to a site that states it's desire to be content rich.
My posts earn pennies and a report of a meme that has been around almost as long as the interwebs is earning over $14.00?
What am I missing? 
You're missing meme's
and followers.
I agree though. 80% of the content on steemit is just pure recycled garbage.. People just churning out content hoping to get follower trades.
Almost everyone saves their votes to upvote whale content (that they likely don't even read). Most whales have agreements with others to save upvotes for each other.. or they bribe their followers by running "contests" that consist of resteeming/liking their content.
I'm a little concerned about steemits longevity with the current reward system.
There was a similar revenue sharing site called Bubblews a year or so ago. It fizzled due to abuse and perhaps neglect. A minimum post link and plagiarism check would fix most things and give this a fighting chance but I have seen this go south before. It's going to be sad if it happens here. So much potential down the drain.
P.S.