Those dapps didn't share a cut with @ned, AFAIK. He didn't profiteer. He was surrounded by profiteers, and did the best he could with who he had to grow Steem - not line his wallet with rewards filched from creators.
You'll note I don't throw any of those institutions bones. I'm not saying I think @ned didn't do anything wrong, or that he couldn't have done better. I'm saying he didn't profiteer from his stake personally, and probably did his best.
You'd have done things differently, and so would I. Everyone would have, because we all are different. Everyone's a critic. But @ned created Steem from nothing but a vision, and no one else did but @dan, with his help.
The examples you give do not reveal profiteering by @ned. If you're going to make such an accusation, back it up with at least a mechanism that supposedly flowed ducats to @ned's accounts.
I don't see even a theoretical mechanism in your accusation of that happening.
Does him profiteering by selling steemit's stake qualify?
Irrespective of who actually profited, those steem came out of the votes of all of us involuntarily due to his decisions.
If his only profiteering was to keep his favorite projects funded, then he may not have profited in steem, but in self gratification of knowing he was screwing everybody over to pay his sycophants.
Regardless, he is dead to us now, we can stop putting our energy into maintaining his relevance.
Look, you seem to have very strong opinions regarding @ned, which is why I found your comment so savage. You don't need to make him Satan to justify your opinion. He didn't mine the rewards pool to fatten his wallet, unlike most whales did, and still do.
If you want to compare selling the stake to pay developers that was originally claimed to have been mined to support development to financial manipulation of rewards, I'm not going to be able to agree with you.
I'm grateful Steem exists, and reckon we owe him honest statements rather than demonization.
You do you.
Yes, nice that his amalgamation with dan left us better off.
But to expect me to take his backstabbing in a non-personal way, no.
He actively worked against the better interests of the average user the entire time he was here.
Some things he had done for him benefited us all, some only benefited him, and his sycophants. (dlive, dtube(mostly), and utopian(on the whole) come to mind.)
So, all hail the amalgamation of ned and dan that led them to launch steem!
F' ned for not doing a better job at customer service to make his creation a success.
People invested real money on his promises of a better tomorrow, and what did he leave us with?
A done deal token swap killing the chain that only didn't happen because the profane rioted?
F' him.
Actively breaking steem and going on walkabout for two years is no cause for hero worship, iyam.
He is dead to us, let his account rot.