I think the gig will soon be up for this site, I'm guessing the real reason payouts are way lower than it appears is because the devs are cashing out our money. Enough articles have been written exposing the scam that this is, just google 'is Steemit a scam' plenty of evidence that the devs are making loads of money, the economy is unsustainable, the voting system is rigged etc. No rebuttals from the devs, they just seem to be dumping all their Steem stock before it becomes valueless. We got well and truly ripped off by these people and going into denial about it ain't gonna get our money back ever.