How much time did your friends spend on the platform until getting disappointed? I needed 4-5 months until I started earning some real money for my blog posts. People generally don't have enough patience, that's what impeeds them to succeed mostly :-)
Btw: besides Steemit.com there are a lot of other applications built on the Steem blockchain where you can monetize any type of content (not only text): Steepshot for pictures (like Instagram), DTube for videos (like YouTube) for instance.
They did not spend enough time or maybe they just want to have instant money or maybe they don't have anything to say :) I told many travel bloggers which I know, but they are too focused in old social media efforts. They won't be early adopters!
I knew those apps, they are great, I would also add dmania, which is fun for memes!
People don't like change :-) They'll surely come back when we have 1 Mio+ users - and will regret not having stayed though.