I think some things that the Steemit platform can do without necessarily building dApps is make it easier to find friends and bloggers throughout their platform. Something as simple as an easier search bar and a "favorite" list of some kind. I also think direct messaging in some capacity would be a fantastic addition.
I think people are drawn to reddit, facebook and instagram because the are intuitive, if you want to search something, it is easy. If you saw something you wanted to send to a friend, it is easy to do that too. I see the popularity of these other platforms and I believe Steemit could be just as big but they need to iron out some kinks before we see more adoption.
And I also loved your point about the account creation. IT HAS TO BE EASIER! I have tried to get many of my friends involved on Steemit but they all got frustrated with the account creation and gave up.
I think the potential of this platform is endless and I think many of wonderful dApps are in the works but I think fixing some problems with Steemit to make it more user-friendly will help the adoption in the coming years!
Thoughts anyone?