I agree with your take on this. The economy of steemit pushes you to devolve, since quality content isn't rewarded fairly. Crap content takes no effort, so it's easy to dump out there.

I don't plan to quit steemit, but I do hope I don't get so salty about things that I just start putting out junk because I'm tired of my better effort being wasted.

Guess we'll have to hang in there in the meanwhile and hope :)