More and more people stepping up to the plate and taking on different aspects of development to help STEEM become more vibrant and attractive to more people is very exciting indeed, @exyle.
It sounds like there are plenty of positive things about smart contracts and side chains, as well as potential downsides. Life is like that, so no surprises there.
The ability to create tokens is rather lost on me—seems like there's more likely a chance of it being worthless than it not—but I'm more than willing to watch that all unfold and see where it ultimately leads.
However, buying STEEM with fiat directly is an amazing development, and if that can happen without costing an arm and a leg, woohoo! That for me is the shot in the arm STEEM needs. Guess we'll know more when that's all available, too. Good to hear about the progress regardless. :)