You've made some great points in the article!
But that's why there are 500k custom json transaction per day on Hive and only 5k posts/comments or 12-15k votes (if I remember correctly). Complexity grows the more you use Hive. But if you focus it becomes simpler. That's why those who only use Splinterlands don't have this issue (apart from the complexity of Splinterlands itself).
Hive is a too larger ecosystem for anyone to cover or understand. Anyone should focus on at most a few things, that's why promoting apps instead of Hive will have the best results.
One problem is indeed that Hive offers so many possibilities that it's easy to get distracted or drain your energy. But the other is the fact the big investments can't find their way into the ecosystem easily (with the possibility to take it out as well).
Hive is a toolbox rather than an investment. For developpers and entrepreneurs it's a paradise but for the people wanting to make a quick buck it's overwhelming. With quality apps like Splinterlands it's possible to attract people with pretty straight forward onboarding. Some of them will start to inquire more in dept and they might become regular hive users.
I like the way you look at it as a toolbox.
But unfortunately that won't bring mass adoption. Applications which make use of the toolbox will though. And it is possible to become an investment too. But for quick money that will not be on Hive, most likely, but rather on other ecosystems connected with Hive, where this kind of mentality prevails.