I have been around for a while now and I still can't get my head around it. Money is what makes the steem platform unique, what makes it stand out, what attracts new users and what keeps most of us around. And still, at the same time, it is what is destroying it for exactly the reasons you give.
Don't show me the money, show me the content, the effort of providing something to the community.
It's exactly for that reason we started @steemmakers. But as you say, without big delegations it's hard to swim against the current or even get noticed. Nevertheless, examples show it can be done and it end up to be nice communities that care about something else but speculation. We aim to do the same in our niche.
My best guess is that it won't evolve in either direction and will stay as it is for a while. Like it or not, where there is money and people there is greed.