ETH is still pretty stable for a crypto-currency (well till today). Still a certain daily up & down is always to be expected.
Again, it is not about what you or some people expect (or don't expect). It is about what steemit.com "promises" and what they "deliver" - is it so surprising and hard to get that lots of people actually expect a certain degree of motivation to "keep a little" promise?

And just btw, I wasn't planing on converting and withdrawing the Steem Power, and I was fully aware of the fact that a) you have to spread a withdraw over 104 weeks and b) you'd have to "power up" with 10 times as much Steem to be able to withdraw the Steem Power promotion. So trying to "cash out" some free money wasn't my intention and I was fully aware that this wouldn't be possible! (That was even a reason for me to sign up in the first place!)