In order to have a few successes you need a massive amount of failed experiments. That's what the SMTs are about. Enabling devs to have control over a business rather than being at the mercy of STEEM Inc if it decides to chance the parameter on the STEEM token. (like the reward curve for example).
We reduced the chance of a hardfork massively by doing so.
Of course but you need early successes to build enough momentum to have permission to fail. Perception matters!