Different Paths for Steemit's Future

When I first encountered Steemit as a social media which at the same time produces a crypto-currency I saw it as an amazing and fascinating project and a hopeful sign that our world is gradually gaining some independence from the brutal financial corporations of our time. It would be a project that furthers free speech for ordinary little people, empowering us, allowing us greater participation in the political discourse within the public realm. And at the same time it would provides us with some earnings for our efforts and for some of us possibly even create the means to make a living with our art, our commentary or our citizen journalism.

Today I'm not quite as optimistic.
There are problems. I don't see them as deliberate ill will at all, rather as consequences of economic necessities, since Steemit, at least at the moment, cannot be self-sustaining. It is still a project that needs large investments into the system, a constant influx of outside money so that Steem could hopefully one day become a viable currency.
Large investors into Steempower have automatically an influence on the social media aspect of Steemit that is by leaps and bounds greater than the influence of the ordinary user. This a very similar influence to that corporate youtube owners have on the new youtube algorithms, which favor certain forms of content while demonetizing the more controversial content.

The path Steemit is taking at the moment leads most likely toward a platform for non-political artists (mostly poets and photographers) as well as tech-enthusiasts to share their knowledge and creative productions with one another while they are supported by rich patrons.
For most steemians this isn't such a bad path: Making a bit of money by doing what you enjoy, why not?
It could mean that more artistic minded people could reduce their working hours in jobs they don't like and instead make at least part of their living from their talents. And for all of us in society this might be a cultural gain.
As for students in technical fields and computer science, it might reduce their financial problems a bit, maybe even one day make them independent from student loans. That would be a real great thing, I think.

For people like me, however, who use social media predominantly in order to communicate critical commentary on today's political system in the hope of reaching enough people to effect some positive change, for those people Steemit will probably not be the best platform.
Sure, there is no direct censorship on Steemit, instead, due to the current system, the exposure of articles or videos which are not upvoted by the most important holders of vast amounts of steempower will be extremely limited.
The most common method for the current elites in western society to protect their own interest has been to limit the exposure of critical ideas by economic means. In other words, those who pay the piper decide on the tune, and those who can pay the whole orchestra will get a concert to their liking.
And since Steemit rules insist on original content and you are not supposed to publish on other sites simultaneously, therefor the platform becomes impractical for dissidents.

On the other hand the path to a free speech platform -as some within the community envisioned it- and to an actual alternative currency is still open for Steemit, though it would probably need some fundamental changes in the reward-influence system.
It will be interesting to see how the whole thing will develop in the future and what path will be taken by the developers together with the community of Steemians.