It feels like there are some people who want to try to push Steemit in a certain direction right now because there's a small user base - that they're afraid there will be no way to control it once it grows. And they're right about that. When thousands of users start joining per week, there will be very little that any one person or small group of people can do.

They are not wrong, in that if sources of growth are stomped on, then it will remain small and controllable. That isn't what most of us want, but some either want control more than growth (for example, you hear derisive comments about becoming another reddit), or they aren't capable of thinking through how this actually works.

It's not like there's any evidence that anyone other than the top ~5% of stakeholders has that kind of power.

There are people in the top 5% of stakeholders who behave in this manner.