What if Steem is already doomed but we are so blinded by the desire to get rich we can't see it. There are so many holes in steemit waiting to be exploited and in fact many of them are being exploited, Whales use there power to silence small users who they don't agree with. The reward pools is raped daily, just look on the trending page and you can see the damage is already done. Steemit was an experiment and it remains in beta mode. I agree with some of what you say such as your insistence on knowledge and focus being the keys to success but use your knowledge of Steem right now and look at users like Bernie and Hiajin. The bad energy of greed is a parasite in the machine.