I thought the entire purpose of HBD was to be pegged to USD, that when that started to change the author rewards and curation rewards would change to modify supply such that it would allow for HBD to get back to the $1USD rate.

In an ideal world, I think this was the way it was meant to work.

If you want to have creators making exclusive content for this platform there has to be a way that they can be rewarded in a predictable manner.

But, is the additional token needed for that, or just a converted display of HIVE value?

If I thought that there was enough audience that I could create content and get paid as well as I can through AdSense on youtube, I would ONLY work on this chain.

I think that LEO will bring some of this in eventually

HBD, assuming it is pegged to a FIAT, allows people offline to do proper financial planning before they create for this platform.

But the goal is to eventually move away from Fiat and start becoming more exclusive crypto. Eventually.