I have almost 90k followers on Google and I've done "social" since five years now... so this is not exactly the first platform I'm looking at. It didn't feel right from the first day, and I'm not even talking about the people you have in mind - I didn't realize they even existed. No, my impression was just one of empty shelves with dreary designs, and without any atmosphere. It does not compare well, it's clutzily made and lacking the intricacies and qualities other networks possess.
The only attraction of steemit is in fact the monetary gains system, the network is as such a glove that fits the steem coin and gives it a semblance of meaning, which is not unclever from a marketing point of view.  On the other hand, it will of course attract a certain kind of people - to put it bluntly, the sort who hope to financially gain from it. Is that hard to understand or in any way surprising ? It is obviously exactly what the originators wanted it to be, as much as the human condition must have been the will of an omnipotent creator ;)
If you think you belong here, then that is obviously the case.