I agree with you completely with regards to Joe Parys being a scammer, although he seems to have a much better reputation here on Steemit than you have suggested. My earlier point however was not intended to support him, but rather to simply point out the fact that once whales "like him" leave the SteemIt platform, and take their money with them, there will be next to nothing left, unless of course you are suggesting that SteemIt will continue to harvest money from the minnows (noobies) who don't know any different and have next to zero chance of ever seeing a return on their investments. In that case, that would indeed be proof positive of SteemIt being an illegal Ponzi Scheme.

I think the more likely outcome will be that SteemIt will not survive for much longer after their working capital is gone, because they appear to have no other sources. I also think it rather unlikely that anyone would pay to advertise on Steemit because the platform has really nothing of value to offer.