Agreed, this is all a power struggle, and that most, if not all, business decisions concerning the platform have been to benefit whales at the expense of the minnows. (While pretending like they give a fuck about the minnows, users and experience with the platform a fraction as much as they want the profits).

All in all, with the exception of shifting to 'communities' instead of 'tags', all decisions have resulted in more users dropping off, fewer comments, fewer rewards (except for whales or those with large followings). I'm fine with that, if they keep going the whales and witnesses will be making ALL the Steem they can, but won't matter because nobody will want to buy them. Their only value will be as a 'score' on their blog posts.