This is one of those situations where I wish condenser development was more responsive. Obviously the promotions page was a terrible idea, like seriously, whose idea was that? But creating a promotion system that works I think would be the best solution.

It's not some crazy rocket science, re-invent the wheel shit. There are plenty of case studies from the giants to learn from. You blend the ads in. Trending shouldn't be ALL ads, then regardless of whether they burned Steem or not, it will still be a place people don't want to go to. There should be a balance of organically trending content and promoted content, and the promoted content should be visually designated as such. Everybody wins.