I get you, and indeed 3 seconds block confirmation time is what is required for using a coin for payments; And that is THE case for crypto currencies, at least for mass adoption. Since Steem has NO transaction fee, the coin is also perfect to be used for micro transactions. I get that indeed.
For now, Steem seems to be an outperformer in terms of speed, and technology. But I think the world is not sitting still and competing blockchains will be introduced. Then the main thing will be marketing, something that Steemit INC is not concentrating on IMHO.
Wrt competition, you mentioned Bitcoin and also I don't see Bitcoin will not become a real competitor in that sense. However, what do you think of the claims EOS is making? They build next generation Steem I suppose. And since Steemit INC ex-CTO is with EOS, we can also expect Applications around EOS, maybe even the next generation Steemit?
And don't you thing the other coins that build faster blockchains, also with parallel blockchains, and I suppose matrixes of blockchains, will not be able to come close or at the mark of 3 seconds we have with Steem?