So you have two types of 'figureheads' when it comes to projects, and we'll be generous and call Steemit a project which it's not but that's a whole other can of worms. You have people that own it (Or used to own it) such as Bill Gates [Microsoft] or Mark Shuttleworth [Canonical-nee-Ubuntu]. You could legitimately say that @ned falls into that category seeing as he holds a pretty large portion of the Steem , and then there are (Or were) Community leaders such as Jono Bacon and Ted Haeger former Community Managers of Ubuntu and Novell (SuSE) respectively.
Community Managers are actually a good idea, it gives participants a focus and someone to direct their grievances and fears towards something that Steemit is sadly lacking. I remember seeing (I've been out the loop for a bit) lots of posts from people desperate for help being advised to "Go on Discord...." which imo is appalling especially given that the current trend for Code of Conducts is prevalent across the Internet at the moment and yet most of the 'Moderation' is [or was] down to bots such as cheetah. Sadly, those who hold the purse strings start asking what is the value [in monetary terms] of having a community leader which is why the likes of Jono and Ted no longer head up their former respective communities.
Now people can't have it both ways, they can't have a decentralised service whereby nobody is in charge, nobody controls your data and they can use whatever the hell they like to connect to the service (Which actually they can't for the minute, so much for decentralisation. LOL) and then start moaning that nobody is stopping Billy big Balls from abusing them or for that matter "Nobody is spreading the word".
For me personally, I favour the idea of a community council elected by the community for an 18 month at a time tenure a bit like the Ubuntu Community Council with a good smattering of Steemit Ambassadors like the Fedora Project has. Again, these are all elected roles which can be rescinded at any time. #TwoPenneth
I was actually thinking of the DASH community, and also Blockpass, who mostly function based on community management.
The other model would be EOS with Blokc.one currently throwing hackathons everywhere.
We definitely need the second, and the first can be kickstarted by Steemit Inc.
Then, if we look at for example WordPress, “ownership” does lead to improved focus and results.
It’s complicated, but while still lacking the truly decentralized development I think some “guidance” is still welcome.
Otherwise it will be too many turf wars too soon.
As I say, I've been out of the loop for a bit so feel under qualified for the minute to make any firm judgements. I can't see what harm a Council with a Leader/Manager or even Glorious Leader if some would prefer could possibly do?
The concept of "Here's the ball, every idiot have a kick!" is no way to win a match.