I think the whole "post to earn" paradigm needs to be diminished.

Whenever "the people that think they know better" tell others "how much easier it is to earn on Hive through posting", they are gonna attract the wrong crowd. Exploiters already exist on the "more difficult" platforms and you are advertising them to come to a place where they can do it with less work.

That's why it greatly saddens me when the recent trending post was this Jerry Banfield-like feel-good vibe nonsense around "get paid to post". They didn't seem to realize that was tried for multiple years and failed miserably...on layer 1.

I continuing seeing people tagging in the most idiotic extremes. Like, would I ever search for appreciator or even blocktrades when I'm looking for a specific content? But, on Hive, it's the norm.

Personally, I think tribes, in conjunction with community features, have helped a bit. But like you mentioned, people still flock to where the money is because that's why they were here in the first place.