'Bout time I get some thoughts to paper, eh? :)
Indeed, the "part 3" of this series will really just be me geeking out about building the ultimate STEEM server -- hopefully my experience can help inform other witnesses and we can push for a more decentralized data environment!
Re- how steem manages data, I totally agree. It's something I want to dig in to soon, since it seems like it's currently a second class citizen as it currently "works". We can do much, much better.
It may relate to some of the things you mention in your post, but what do you think of this EOS: An Architectural, Performance, and Economic Analysis? I wonder how much if it relates to Steem as well. I've been asked to take a look and give a perspective and figured you might be interested as well.
Saw that this morning, first impression is that it has an extraordinary amount of inaccuracies.
I might do a peer review to explain how misleading their statements are.