Is #newsteem working or not?

IMO #newsteem is a success, but based on my data we can't call #newsteem a success. The number of posts and the number of active users is still in a decline. Daily account creation is at about the same level. The only thing positive is that more STEEM is being powered UP. Unfortunately, this has not impacted the price in a positive way (yet). Steem is still following most other altcoins to lower levels.

Is #newsteem working or not?

I think it mostly depends on how we should define the success of #newsteem. What was the purpose of #newsteem?

In my opinion Steem should be a network where 'the community' decides which content receives the most visibility. Under #newsteem manual curation has improved a lot and paid voting services (bots) are no longer effective. I see this as an improvement, because under #oldsteem only posts that used a paid voting service made it to the trending page.
It is still far from perfect though. What I call 'the community' is actually a couple of large whales who have a lot of influence. I'm not sure how to fix that, but I agree with you that their behaviour has the most impact on how the system works right now.

I think we can only adapt to the changes. Visibility on Steem is not for sale anymore by using voting services. Whether we like it or not.

Let's hope communities on Steem (which is in the pipeline) will help to improve this visibility issue. I think it can help if we can post our articles in a specific community to bring it under the attention of that specific community only. Each community apart can then decide which articles should receive the most visibility within that community.