I covered this recently dissecting pyramids. Steem itself is decentralized, any company utilizing it for their business make that growth from it a form of centralization. If there is to be a growth off of Steem, there will be many centralized pyramids coming from it. But Steem is always the base allowing it, not the centralization or pyramid itself.
I believe (and will be expounding on more soon) that smart business is to stop setting up a circle focusing within Steem and demonstrate and create apps that enhance preexisting businesses that already are solvent in their cash flow and seek to either use Steem to become more efficient in keeping more of their cash flow, or to increase the cash flow.
There is no good reason this hasn't happened yet, other than a breakdown in skill sets. Programmers aren't marketing machines, or business people for the most part. Nor those others have programming skills typically.
But we have enough proof that focusing inward within one of the preexisting pyramid structures like Steemit is not the way forward.