hmm, i see your point. steemit is a social networking platform. You have rightly pointed out that it is about money (investment and speculation) and finding alignments(networking). they play a far bigger role than content itself.

this puts things into perspective for new comers or even people who are at the bottom. when new people come into the platform they have limited ways too engage with other people. the relationships you are talking about takes a long time. so their only option is to focus on what they do and do it as well as they can. hence they produce content. that is the edge they have.