As far as I can tell, once new investment/re-investment slows down and the selling off of steem or SMDs increases (whether it "trickles out" through "powering down" to steem or leaves as rewarded SMDs which are sold off) the price of steem will have no choice but to go down. This may take a while since so much of the Steemit network is locked up in SP but I don't see how it can be avoided.

Some may take issue with viewing Steemit like a business. Bitcoin for example doesn't require continued investment because it provides a wide variety of abilities which create a demand for BTCs. Steemit also has utility because it allows a means to reward content contributors, however the network is designed to promise everyone more than they put in. The only reason contributors can be rewarded is because there's a constant flow of investors who expect to be paid out later.

I think the discussion of whether or not Steemit qualifies as a "ponzi scheme" is irrelevant. Of course, you don't have to put money in to get paid if you are contributing content. Nevertheless some people do have to invest in order for the Steemit network to function, and if everyone putting money in is eventually expecting more out then there's no way for all of them to get paid.

For the record, I'm not a Bitcoin maximalist and I love seeing new projects in the crypto space. I have no skin in the game when it comes to Steemit. I've just seen a lot of people promoting it and I don't understand how it will end up working. I apologize if I've misrepresented Steemit because I'm getting things wrong on how the network actually functions. If that's the case please feel free to disagree or correct me.