You are right, APPICS is an SMT on the STEEM Blockchain. But right now, the SMT protocol is still under development by steemit inc.
That's why we are first issuing an ERC20 token to all our early investors & supporters.
Once the SMT is fully developed, those ERC20 tokens will be swapped to APPICS tokens (XAP)
If you want to know more about SMT: https://smt.steem.io/
Finally! A good explanation as to why ERC20 tokens are issued first and not XAP tokens. I have my fingers crossed for a quick completion of the SMT protocol. The success of APPICS boils down to the success of the SMT protocol.
Thank you for the time and wish you best of luck.