I originally envisioned @steembasicincome as an experiment to see whether it's possible to crowdsource a sustainable universal basic income. In that context, I consider the experiment a failure. The main reason, as you stated- it's not a basic income because it requires a minimum level of effort from the account owner to receive their votes (create a quality post).
Secondarily, there are limitations to hive economics and social norms that make it impossible to earn enough votes to live on just from Hive SBI. As a curation service that provides accounts with ongoing support (permanently support somebody without ever having to rebalance all your voting rules!) it has been a fantastic success.

You see the transition in branding around the time of the Hive fork, although we kept the original accounts. Hive SBI is not actually an acronym for Hive Steem Basic Income as one would imagine, but an acronym for Hive Stake Based Income (less aspirational, more accurate, totally non-obvious).

Support @freecompliments with Hive SBI