yep, no denying that! Tho at the current state Steem is, being so young. People are naturally still skeptical to the whole "scheme".
I actually do have met with exceptional writers (bloggers/crypto influencer) that told me they left steem because "its not worth the effort". that was in the early days i believe before there are other curation guilds than @curie.
Any "active" steemians must be a curator one way or another regardless of their level of engagement to Steem. either that, or as you suggested, delegate or at least set a trail pointed towards curators such as yourself. hehe