The problem is not a few dudes getting rich here.

The problem is that new users have a bad experience and therefore there is no stickiness and no growth.

Steem has not gained any users, even though thousands sign up every months. this is because we lose as many users as we gain. I have seen many key users leave, I see few reasons to stick around.

That said I myself am still here (so I must get some use out of it).

Personally i believe the issues is the distribution of SP. You may think the reasons are different, but the fact seems that whatever is going on right it is not working.

You can sign up 1m new users, but they won't have any SP and thus won't like it here and leave. They believe it is unfair because they see all these guys with lots of SP having all the benefits and they have none.

Either the token distribution must change to something that actually creates adoption and not hinders it or some other functionality must be created that gives users a way to come and stick around like other social media apps are doing.

Neither of these two options are being worked on and thus i think there is little hope for this place.

Nobody is responsible for this work or motivated to solve this problem. That to me is the issue.