One of the reason why I didn't think STEEM was going to make it through it's nuclear winter was the lack of communication from Steemit Inc or anything that resembled anything logical.   It just looked like a money grab in a lot of ways.   But I'm convinced now that STEEM will survive.  But yeah it would seem that STEEMIT INC would take steps to encourage 3rd party development including granting certain users allotments to work on stuff.