I think you did well just taking on a new project, discovering 'what's out there', and drawing your own conclusions about it.
Even though this blockchain and its dApps are not centralized and we don't have to be afraid of being manipulated into some algorithm that gets and keeps us into a bubble, also on Steem we can get stuck in a huge echo chamber with one side being super pessimistic and one side being overly optimistic.
I'm on the optimistic side, by the way, but that also means I like to read people who are just as optimistic as I am, lol, thus creating my own echo feed :D
Going away for a while and really seeing what has changed and what direction Steem is starting to develop must feel like a breath of fresh air :-)
Glad you're back and seeing the beauty of all that's happening here, I see all that you've mentioned in your blog as a great overview but also as just the beginning of all that is to come \0/