From your post it looks like you have been away for too long and a lot has changed.

Steem is not steemit. There are several frontends that can display the content that is stored on the steem blockchain. Steemit is just one of them. Possibly you are aware of this but since you keep mentioning steemit it doesn't seem like it. You can check most of the apps and blogging platforms on https://steemapps.com/.

Also it's worth checking https://steem-engine.com/ which is a smart contract platform built on top of the steem blockchain. There you can find a market for different tokens that can be traded for steem as well as a description of what each one is used for.

As for your concerns keep in mind that steem is a descentralized network and is up for the users to combat plagiarism, vote farms and the like. Rest assured that there are alot of people helping to fight this every single day especially since the last upgrade with hardfork 21 it has become easier to do this and more difficult for abusers.

Steem is now much more than a blogging platform. You should check @steemitblog for the updates that have happened since you were away.

Have a great day!