It is very fishy from pump day 1. How can steem be limited if those writers get rewards, and repeat? I mean if unlimited writers can make unlimted rewards, and the steem's total supply is limited? Illogical scheme.
Rewards originate from inflation (new coins issued). Rewards are a fixed percentage of the new coin supply issued.
With a fixed-sized marketcap, if userbase goes 10x or 100x, average rewards go down 10x or 100x.
Rewards are currently excessive precisely because the userbase is in the tens-of-thousands instead of millions.