Steemit Inc. seems to be destroying the steemit.com platform like for the reasons you said and many others like:

• Whales posting literal crap and getting handsomely rewarded for it. Totally absurd and unjust.

• Whales bullying others.

• Rewards pools vastly shrunk in favor of these whales and Steemit staff, like you said.

• Steemit Inc. pursuing policies similar to other traditional platforms (annoying ads, for instance) in lieu of what it was really meant to be as a platform.

Is there anything that can be done to effectively counter these?

Ca commence a faire dur en tabaslak!