I'm not hoping that steem would explode as well. The only way I see Steem would rise is with BTC rising. It's sad to see my Steemit account losing value every month but what the hell, happens.
And like you said...
I put a lot of my work, really a lot, to get to the point where I am now, and quitting now would be simply waste of that all time and work...
For the same reason I don't see any sense in just quitting suddenly because I lost my money. Plus I actually enjoy posting my content here and communicate.
There is always too many "if" - it is really bad that STEEM relay on BTC so much. Maybe some day its value will be so big, that other crypto will relay on STEEM ... hahahaaa, who knows. Time will show!