So I did some research and as it turns out, money on steemit doesn't come out of thin air. There are those who actually manage the nodes (and get a certain percentage of the block rewards) so technically speaking, you could consider them the miners who are managing this blockchain..... Hope that makes sense....

I don't get what workers you're talking about over here. If by workers you mean those who manage the nodes then yes. They have volunteered for this and get paid for it with a certain percentage of each block's rewards. They are also investing their time, energy and money and we can be considered the employees of this firm where we produce content and get paid for our work