Alright, so if HBD is Hive Blockchain Dollar, HTU is... What? Hive Total Unrealised?

Hive Token Unit is used in place of hbd because of the variance between using hbd and the payout in hive power.
Because these numbers can differ fractionally, they designate the difference by calling the payouts htu.
The actual payout in hbd and hp is done at payout and can vary from what is seen on the post if hbd were used.
I'm probably one of very few left that were here when that hit the common knowledge of the crowd.
I doubt the newbs even notice that there is a difference.

I figured delegating stake to an account that pays a return was akin to a savings account that paid interest, on the surface at least.

This would be valid if the one paying the interest wasn't taking it from the reward pool.
The reward pool is better used to encourage 'good' posting, imo.
When financing a business, taking from a commons is bad pr, iyam.

At some point the business could grow large enough to make posting, for those not joining in the game, pointless, ergo, the pushback to nip it in the bud.
Same with the curation gangs, but good luck getting those getting paid by those initiatives to ever admit that I am right and stop.

I pushed back on curie when they were still using ned's posting key, because delegation hadn't been coded yet, for this very reason, they centralize who gets rewards.
It might have had something to do with them saying my content was 'too controversial' and sticking to that by never voting my content.

I was mistakenly voted, once or twice, but only by newb curators.
I presume they have been admonished to not to do that, again.

These businesses will stop pulling from the commons at some point, or I will keep pointing out that joining a gang benefits the beneficiaries of the gang much more than the rank and file.
It also disadvantages everybody with the common sense to recognize this fact and that reject their bs.
Many of those that were willing to brownnose the inner sanctum were rewarded handsomely, and continue to drain the pool, today.

Seemed like a win-win, especially in this day and age where the best interest rate on savings I've ever had access to in my lifetime has been well south of 3% a year

Cubdefi.com and the diesel pools on the tribaldex.com are the place for no effort returns.
Those were only recently made available, but seem to be working just fine.
My returns are in line with what was promised.
If you don't have a dswap.trade bot, I highly recommend it.

Hbd in savings are paying 10%.

It's a hell of a thing. It's kind of beautiful

Yes, many moving parts to the math of the hive.
The gist of that post is that the whales could suck all the inflation up, if they voted all their power, leaving nothing for anybody else.

In reality, our whales have shown restraint on reaping the pool.