I have long been unsettled by the aphorism you relate here, 'power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely', but never really was able to refine my unease until just now.

I disagree with it because I see examples of good folks empowered that do not become corrupted by it. What I do see is that the corrupt seek power, so they can abuse it. I observe that power attracts the corrupt, and absolute power is seized by the utterly corrupt.

We lament that the many good people in the world are overwhelmed by the relatively corrupt few that have sought and seized power to do harm to others to benefit themselves, and this is a result of how power is attained and effected. Generally IRL and on Steem platforms, it is stake-weighting through which power is effected, and seizing funds how it is attained.

Thus the concept of democracy is a rudimentary attempt to prevent stake-weighting to wield power over good but poor people. Machinations of the corrupt however corrupt political mechanisms, and so IRL oppression and profiteering result. So on Steem, via the same mechanisms: profiteering and extortion.

But DLTs and global communications are novel technologies, and potentiate novel solutions to ancient problems. While Steem may be too structured so as to effect stake-weighting, which has enabled the corrupt to extort and disenfranchise the principled, it is but an initial implementation of this technology, and open source at that.

If Steem cannot be a venue for just society due to structural faults, new implementations that avoid those faults certainly will be developed, and in time, as we gain understanding of how corruption is empowered to effect harm, we'll use this new technology wisely - humbly - to prevent power from being seized at the expense of principled folks that won't do harm for it.

If not today, soon.