I can be convinced that execution is the problem too, but I've seen plenty of iterations of Steemit that eventually all went down the same path. And you can see so many other forums and platforms doing something similar, but they simply can't escape the fact that the system, once gameable, slips away. The cost of democratisation?
Yeah that's completely true, I've seen that happen with dMania on the Steem blockchain.
When users are able to earn money for just simply posting any sort of low-quality meme, that's basically what you get.
People don't put any effort in and they're happy with earning a couple of cents for posting and sort of crappy image they've found.
I'm not sure how you could overcome that :-/