I am so happy I have found your post! (I saw this when @steemnation has published in twitter)
Your very well presented information and research actually answers many of my questions (posted here] where I was wondering about the users' retention and how we and steemit can assist in its development through its members.
I, too, share your thoughts and I believe that 2018 will be big for steemit BUT it can be bigger.
Many new users are coming here, especially now that the steem price increases, but they are coming out of curiosity and I am not sure how many will actually stay.
There are so many great initiatives for welcoming newbies, tutorials as yours and more .. The only problem is that in the majority of the cases, these information are never delivered (or understood) by the users.
Spam users and comments are increasing and the users sometimes do not know their next actions or how to protect themselves.
I believe in promoting steem and I do plan a number of things about it, but I believe that promoting needs also educating new members and make information easy to find.
Again, thrilled to have come accross your blog. Resteemed of course and let's all do whatever we can for a great steemit year!