That may have been critical to forming the network but not for maintaining it. As long as the consumer UX is good (which is a big assumption I have no idea abou

That may have been critical to forming the network but not for maintaining it. As long as the consumer UX is good (which is a big assumption I have no idea about), the creators will do whatever they need to to reach that audience. You lose some at the margins but that's probably low-quality content anyway.