I won't say the price or rewards don't matter, but there's no doubt that the primary motivation for many creators is to reach out to an audience and build engagement. Some call it social capital. There are, of course, some creators who don't even care about the audience, and only want to create.

Blockchain technology definitely has potential to bridge the gap between creator and audience, but the Steem/Hive system is definitely not it. BAT is doing a slightly better job of it, but is rather flawed too. (Though to be fair, they have a plan and it's in active development)