But the delegations allow them to grow their service, and for others to invest and support them. Honestly delegating is a truly unique aspect to the chain. Can things be done better with it? Absolutely, but it's sort of a new paradigm in supporting a service.

Could services make more by buying steem? Maybe, but that doesn't directly return value for the services investors like delegating can. Realistically anyone running their project on steem should be making use of delegations AND buying steem.