Great post - I think it's important that folk appreciate that steemit is a test bed or proof of concept as you point out. This is not 'it'!
As you say, I suspect that many will be using the steem blockchain without even knowing it once smt's are in full flow. And this seems right, as most don't think about how the Internet 'works' - it just does its thing in the background. That will be a sign of success.
This.
I recall that several years ago (maybe even a decade ago) a European poll showed that a majority of people thought that Google was an app.
That was around the time that Chrome started to gather traction, and Android wasnt thing yet, so that answer was still invalid. Google was still a search engine and had only just started its acquisition and expansion drive to behemoth size.
More recently, especially in development nations, many people think of Facebook as the internet. That helped by cooperations with telcos offering free mobile Facebook (but no outgoing link opens).