Work until you can, is just about the best way to drive away mass amounts of people. Like the mindset or not, it's the fucking truth.

Steem has been advertised as a platform with free-handouts. "Come to Steem, contribute and earn free money", which was a good way to attract masses of people who simply opened up their hands. But they're the same people who cry about Steem being ruled by whales. Truth is: the world is being ruled by power. And money (regardless of FIAT or CRYPTO) is just another form of power.

Selling Steem short by giving things away for free didn't work out, which is why I don't think it's smart to give away communities for 0.4 USD. Instead, IMO this will simply result in people not valuing the underlying product. It doesn't need to be 1000 STEEM, but it should be at least 5$ or 10$. If you don't have that, you're lying to yourself.

(Also, not to be antagonistic, but just because someone runs a successful business doesn't mean you should listen to them. "Appeal to authority" / "Listen to the top" is the most blanket & pointless statement I hear often nowadays.)

I'm not referring to them running a business. I'm referring to the fact that matt, aggroed and the rest of the Splinterlands team, created a thriving ecosystem, which has steadily gained in value. Even their own currency DEC has enough sinks to hold its value. Which is why their opinion should be valued.