I also followed the same path for TA. Thought it was BS, but now respect it. But I am still not a bitcoin maximalist. Some coins are fundamentally different and provide value, like steem.
Can a social media using upvotes be built on top of bitcoin? Yes maybe but it's going to be way way waaay harder than doing it the way Steem does. Steem is so far ahead than there is no point even trying to build it on top of Bitcoin.