I have had a great experience with Hive. Sure it's not perfect (but what is) and u feel strongly Hive as a blockchain, and the members in general could benefit enormously if the DPOS governance system were changed to a Pure Democracy. However there is not such a system in operation yet (although The Matrix-8 Solution is forthcoming), and it would first need to be tested with a smaller group if people, so a Hive Community with their own token would be perfect I think.
But I don't see Hive as a pyramid scheme at all. Sure there is (just recently) a Hive onboarding incentive, but it's small and only one level.