Excellent post. I like your perspective on things here. I myself have decided to make radical changes on my account but some of the changes just moved me to dlease.io and moving Steem into other projects. I agree there are problems, I agree we need some changes, I want what’s best for Steem. I also believe if a person buys a stake in anything or somehow earns a stake they should Be free to vote what ever content they want and as ofter as the want. The system limits us to our own power. Manual curation is ideal in a perfect world but most people enjoy the help of bots, I know I sure do. I want my SP working for me as hard as possible BUT still share with others. I felt like my overall “system” to earn Steem was fair for me and the risk I took, fair for others who did he same, fair for the minnows and new comers that I voted for EVERYDAY with a large part of my voting power and only posted once a day to limit myself to 7-8% selfvotes a week. I loved every persons content I have voted for for the last two years and that’s real talk facts! I don’t vote for those people anymore. Hell im terrified to give my own mom who has a drumming blog a 100% vote because I know she’s already voted my post. I have brought SEVERAL friends here who invested over 10k....I can’t support them every single day for one post? They are supporting me. I really don’t feel if I was even a top 100 problem on this blockchain. I did however decide to change the way I do things just due to the simple fact that how will I even know if it can’t work as well if I don’t give It a solid test for 90 days? So I now will not vote anyone that was ever on my voting bot ( about 30 accounts and most were not everyday posters) and I find myself voting for content I really don’t love BUT, I know the post won’t get downvoted by these centralized services and flag trails. Is this really good for Steem? I don’t want to make it easy to get Steem for people who only post activfit results or Steem monster or drug war battle results. I personally think that is a form of abuse. I didn’t downvote it because everyone has their own little way of trying to earn Steem. Relationships get forged, new Steemians meet and want to support each other, friends invest, family needs help, etc, etc. I see no way to stop this especially as it gets bigger. I want people to be incentivized to BUY Steem and power it up when they realize how much they can earn from owning it and using its power how they see fit. A well rounded market needs all of this.....it needs to be stretched in many directions. I understand curtation DEFINITELY helps stretch the pool but in a bear market we also need investors and they want ROI. Steem is awesome because there are lots of ways to get ROI but every way has its own set of consequences or limitations. That I love...what I don’t love is how groups of flaggers OR curators are formed to decide what goes and what stays when people like pharesim or acidyo hold the most massive part of the stake in the group. It’s like fanboy groupies letting a handful of people regulate what they think Steemit should be. I know one thing for sure, my long term goals have changed because of them and as soon as Steem hits a nice little rise.....I am moving money out and some other sucker will come in and conform to thier totalitarian rules. Jus my 2 cents....