The Democrats didn’t pay Steele.
Unnamed Republicans did, and sold product to the DNC and Hillary.
It’s a very very serious error to conceptualize this amazing hidden coup attempt as “it’s the Democrats”, when it’s not.
It’s Bush and Romney, at a minimum, and their hangers on. The Democrats are just along for the ride.
My understanding of the timeline is the Republicans paid Fusion GPS first, then Hillary's campaign paid Fusion, then Fusion paid Steele.
Republicans paid fusion - didn’t find anything useful to use.
When democrats stepped in is when it turned into the Russia setup.