first Doug say hello to all the steemit bots replaying you.
second I will try to answer the 3rd question:
I think that steemit is a social platform yet to discover it's final form ([shameless plug!](https://steemit.com/steemit/@ooak/steecky-thoughts-1-steem-is-like-a-pokemon-it-evolves-3-min)). the most interesting thing about steemit is of course the economic incentive to earn money. What brought me here was a post about some girl earning 40k$ on here make up tutorial. I think many users flock here for the chance to earn big, free, easy money but they discover that it's hard because the probabilities are stacked against them. if you think about how many whales are there and how many posts are posted each day it's becoming hard to profit.
for the long run I think that "fast money grabbers" will grow tired of steemit or convert themselves to become a more valuable member of the community, with quality posts and they will be joined by people who are already posting or trying to post quality posts.
It's also a matter of educating the mass that good, quality, valuable posts shall be rewarded and low quality posts will be ignored.
So looking short term we will see many bots/spam users, for the long run I expect the bots will be in control and spam users will be shut down fast by the community and we will see a much better curation.

Welcome aboard !