He controls millions in SP (which by the way is powering down through different accounts) and he chooses to support sketchy projects like @guyfawkes4-20 pointed out in the post. Also, from Dan's main account you can see that he withdrew more than 3 million STEEM over the last 5 months. Just some little facts. 

And for the Rome part, I agree with you, but Steemit doesn't have 5 years as no other social media ever had. They either go mainstream or collapse way more faster than 5 years. (Steemit has already been around for about 2 years)