Gaz, excellent comment. I wouldn't blame you if you decided to join the crowd. The worst that can happen is that good content actually makes its way on the trending page, even if paid for to get there. Right now, it's mostly garbage, as your friend says. And that's why a lot of people won't stick around Steemit. Unfortunately.

My view is this: Despite the "garbage," there is still a lot of opportunity here. It isn't dead. It may be an uphill battle if you're here only for the social networking, or for the rewards, but where else can you go to earn one iota of similar rewards for doing what you're likely going to do anyway? Very few sites offer payment for writers to create the content they enjoy creating. Steemit is a leader in that regard.

I've been playing around on another, however. Have you heard of Narrative? Based on the NEO blockchain. It launches into beta on April 2, 2019. There's no fee to join. I'd recommend joining and watching for a few days before you start creating. See what's going on, who the early adopters are, and what they're doing. Post some posts to your personal journal. You can buy a niche as an investment, but you might want to wait until you are familiar enough with the platform to be comfortable. My hope is that it will become a real contender.