I think the answer is yes to the first question. It is now to the point that people are not wasting their time posting or doing much on steemit anymore. If this doesn't scare the shit out of anyone with power, then they should have their heads examined.

Inflation is not the issue at all with Steem in my opinion... Inflation is irrelevant when the coin has dropped from $8 to $0.20... The drop is due to the loss of faith in the platform, because they haven't "flooded" the system with tons of coins like other alt coins. There was once a very vibrant funnel of new users onboarding and many communities for them to go to.

They made many mistakes in that process, but the WORST was when they changed the formula to get rid of SPAM. They essentially made it impossible for a free user to make more than a few comments a day, and while it succeeded at eliminating spam, it did so by eliminating users. Now the platform has been on a steady and rapid fall from that point. Its movement determined by the downward spiral that is the opposite of the the virtuous upcycle benefits. Less people = less money = less posting = less people = less money...etc ... I have never sold or powered down any of my Steem Power and today my whole account is worth less $s that it was in my first month here. In other words, had I sold in my first month and went away, I would have more real money than now. The next 20 months of my time has not only yielded NOTHING, but instead has COST me by having faith they would get the right formula.

I'm not complaining to complain, I can frankly live fine if it goes to $0. But if someone looks at that example, then they can realize exactly why people have left the platform. It isn't due to the inflation (that is such a small part of it). Its due to disgust and disenchantment and a general loss of faith that the people in power will FIX their mistakes.

And yes, quality content creators will not come here at this point. I know filmmakers, actors, and political pundits personally and I would never invite them at this point because it is embarrassing with some of the shenanigans I listed above. Until they get serious about having a quality platform, then my guess is the quality content creators will stay away.