How valuable is it really? Because right now, I'd say things aren't exactly looking very good for Steem in terms of users activity.
And how can they squat them if the communities are numerical ID's?
if you can't afford, then work until you can
Sure, it's easy to say work until you can. I'm not sure how well traveled you are, but you and I are from wealthy countries. Most of the world can't and that's a harsh truth. And they're supposed to be one of the primary benefactors of crypto. At least, that was the idea many years ago.
The increased barrier to entry just prevents more adoption. And no offense to @yabapmatt but, he's running a card game not the entire Steem platform. The work he's doing is great, but it's apples and oranges to what we're talking about here. Also, I didn't know Steem itself was supposed to have a profit driven model? I thought the witnesses were paid for their job to keep the chain up and running, no?