I think you bring up very valid points regarding the long term value of Steemit and I agree with you. I think when Dtube and Zappl take hold, this will change the media delivery method of the Steem block chain to new users which I think will be a big shot in the arm. It's very tough to earn money on Steemit presently. It takes persistence and hard work, and there's simply not that many people willing to put in the time and effort to do it by blogging.
9 out of 10 people are consumers of media, but don't actually provide content themselves. This is prevalent over all aspects of social media whether it be youtube, twitter or blogging. By Steemit covering all avenues of media delivery, it's users will increase dramatically, even if we don't have the amount of trading on the exchanges to show it. This is where I see Steem as being misunderstood the most. Steem get's beaten up by the speculators and traders b/c it's fundamentally different than the more traditional coins. Facebook's value lies in the amount of users it has. This is so b/c they can monetize their users through advertisements. With no ads on the block chain, this makes valuing Steem much more difficult, but it makes it incredibly attractive for businesses and marketers to be a part of Steemit b/c of the tremendous amount of users. They can reach so many prospective target demographic customers as communities continue to form and there's incredible value in that, which you've detailed many times.
I definitely agree with your long term outlook for Steemit. As time goes by and Steemit organically changes from a blogging site to a full scale social media delivery system, only good things will happen. Great insight as always brother, have a great Friday!