Excellent video explanation. It's basically value for value.
Those who put more into this platform (generating interest, followers, comments, etc.) will get more out of it, in the form of financial rewards, sort of like an employee-owned self-publishing venture, only online.
Is that a good analogy of steemit, or is there a better one I'm missing?
That's a great way to look at it. I was curious to see what analogy people seem to like best, and that seems to be it.