Interesting, I am too new to have know about those days that you speak of. To me it is way more exciting now than when I was starting a year ago and rewards seem to be getting better and better. I guess that is the benefit of not knowing any better LOL :)
On a serious note though if I were to put on my hat as an investor I would have serious questions as to why I would want to deal with curating content and earning 8% + 2.9% on staked Hive Power if I could simply deposit my $100K USD into HBD savings and walk away with 15% and less risk exposure to Hive which is much better than that combined 11% when it comes to the big money...