Most high-quality content in the economy of web content is worth pennies. Nobody pays to read content and everyone wants to be a blogger when they grow up. So, earning pennies or a couple of bucks for doing what a lot of people do for free is a big deal. Those pennies earn a form of interest with the inflation when we print new steem stakeholders get a bit of the new steem to offset the inflation. In addition, curation rewards go up, self-voting once a day goes up... That is how the system was designed to encourage people to hold.