Great comment. I'm also blown away by the mechanics behind Steemit.
There seems to be a sort of arms race between the "gamers" and the "game designers" at the moment. They haven't plugged all the holes, but they're getting there. There's still plenty of #copypasta and low quality content, but there is also very little trolling.
It's somewhat analogous to Google and SEO. In the early days, using very basic methods such as keyword spamming, Google could be gamed for higher placing in the SERPS. Over time however, they refined their paradigm, to the point where attempting to game the system is more work than it's worth.
Comparatively, the Steemit devs have made incredible progress in a very short period of time.