Yeah, no doubt about the damage in terms of marketing... and sadly, marketing seems to be the key ingredient for success in this day and age.
I grow my own hopium here and believe this to be a "cleansing" time for steem's participants and players. I wouldn't be shocked to see the value drop much lower and I just pray someone will keep the network alive in the meantime.
I still find a lot of value in this community, even if it's not at all or hardly represented in the monetary games.