An excited introduction - Whats the game if you havent got a rep?

Hello steemit!
The first time I heard of steemit was on Friday. I was very excited and registered on Saturday. Today I got approved! Thanks a lot!
But why have I been so excited? Well. I'm studying social sciences and have been focussed a lot on inequality and the social dimensions of technology. One of these technologies are platforms that allow us to connect with other people. Social networks. I guess a lot of you are using them. One concern I have with the established social networks like Facebook, Twitter and other is, that they are only providing a platform. No more, no less. Once its up and running, the users create the content on these platforms. Therefore they get to use the platform "free of charge". And here comes the but. They pay with their data. And that is a lot of data. Probably worth a lot more than just the providers have to pay to keep their platforms up and running. Every click, every message, every post or like is a new line in the datatable of these providers. And that is more data to monetize for the platform providers. What do you get back? You're able to see posts tailored to what your probably want to see. A fine selection of posts of your friends. But you cant even be sure any more, that you'll see the post of your friend who is asking for help you might be able to provide. So maybe you only get to see posts that can be monetized easily. Which, in my opinion makes those networks less social. Where is the inequality now? Some people are able to invest in social networks by buying shares. They get money for the data they, but also a big lot of others shared. People who are struggling to get to the next day with the few cents they have, aren't able to buy those shares. They are cut out of getting their share of their data's worth. They probably have to rely on services like Facebook because they are "free of charge" and they are not able to pay for the call to their family members or friends. There are still a lot of alternatives available for e.g. VOIP-Calls. For some of those you have to have knowledge. To acquire knowledge you have to have spare time, which you are probably not having if you're struggling to pay next months rent.
So whats the difference to steemit? And what do I hope to finde here? Steemit pays you for your content. Which is worth a lot. There is no algorithm that decides which posts are worth to be brought to the attention of the other users and that doesn't decide how much your post is worth. It's the users. And that is a very big step toward getting paid for the work you do and the content your provide. And yes. In my opinion, writing a post is some kind of work too. That brings me to the question what I hope to find here. I hope to find community that appreciates the input I give and a platform that is not shovelling money I some peoples pockets. I hope to have found a platform that might tackle some inequality we face by giving something back. And one of the best things: I hope, due to its infrastructure, there will be critical posts that cannot be censored because somebody doesn't like what he or she is reading.
And whats with the rep thing? Well. I'll put all of my rewards into my power. That will hopefully increase what I'll be getting back for my upcoming posts. But I'll criticize this right away. Users with more power have a bigger impact in this community. Which will make an opinion worth more if you got more power. The same opinion from another user won't. That might end in some form of Matthew effect (Matthew effect in short: "the rich get richer, the poor get poorer" Source: Wikipedia (I know, I know)). But there's, as always, a but. The described mechanism is also some sort of quality control. So I hope steemit has already found or will find a solution that no unfair accumulation of any kind of capital.
At last I'd like to kick of a discussion. Do you agree with the things I wrote in this post? Or is it just some bullshit (maybe only partially)?
Thanks for reading and thanks to steemit for allowing me to be here. I'm very excited to be part of this community and what the impact of this platform might be in the future.
Yours,
Veritogen