SBD is a derivative token that promises to be worth of one US dollar in steems. So if we give those steems to users who own SBD, it is totally fair.
Also... removing SBD would be like giving up an idea of having stable cryptocurrency, which is perfect for merchants.
So far the adoption by merchants has been pretty much non-existent.
Are you sure? I made planty deals with other people on steemit, by paying them SBD. What is maybe no ready is platform for merchants.
Actually it should be pretty easy to analyze how often SBD change hands. Sometimes memo will be an explanation what was bought.
Oh yeah, that's another point I forgot to mention in the OP. There is no privacy for SBD transfers which is a huge problem. Very few people are willing to use a token in everyday commerce if every transaction is totally open for the world.
so in that case, we can use only Monero?
It has other weaknesses to be really useful. But the privacy tech it's using could be implemented in the Steem blockchain. And not only could but really should. When Steem was launched, privacy was on of the features to be implemented soon, but somehow it's been totally forgotten today.