Being 2 years already here, starting a 3rd one and after some mistakes, ups & downs, I finally begin to truly understand how Hive works.
As you said it's not in any way a simple platform and at this stage of development it's not very intuitive to use as well, but with time it will get better. The way I see it Hive is a business that needs to be managed properly, but this gives everyone the opportunity to get adequately rewarded for their efforts in content creation(and not only).
I agree with time that Hive should be easier to use, and that can be done by developing good apps and tools. Right now, it's hard to get a Hive account and RC delegation, and users find it hard to learn how to write posts. All of that can be improved.