I'm interested in it because I see the lack of smart contracts as a main weak point for Steem and the recent massive airdrop means there's an opportunity for some integration.
The idea of user-readable contracts is interesting, but I will have to read more deeply to see if that has actually been achieved (I've seen lots of user-readable stuff that gets very complex as soon as it becomes non-trivial).
It's 4th or 5th on my priority list, but if I have time, I do plan to hack around a little, write up a smart contract/steemit idea I have, and maybe post a utopian tutorial if it bears fruit.
Good point. The bots/smart contracts I have seen done on Byteball thus far have been pretty trivial, so maybe it's a bit early to claim that it's a functional readable smart contract platform.
I'm looking forward to seeing what you have in mind (if you find the time)!