I think what this article is trying to articulate is how the stated goals of STEEM (and Steemit, the company, if you go by Ned Scott's statements at Steemfest) isn't about the social media site, Steemit. Most (myself included) didn't get this right away. They think, "Of course the Steemit social media site is the main product!" The reality, I now think, is closer to this being a reference implementation for what's possible on the STEEM blockchain and just one part of the vision to tokenize the web. The focus of Ned (from what I understand) and his company is to build out Smart Media Tokens to accomplish that tokenization. STEEM is the blockchain that will do that and it will be done without Steemit (the website) even having an interface to deal with SMTs directly to begin with (from what I understand).
So I'm still doing the same comparison. I'm comparing STEEM, the cryptocurrency, with other cryptocurrencies. I don't necessarily have to compare it with options outside the cryptocurrency space because that would be redundant (they all share those same benefits, for the most part, against fiat currencies).
The fact that the STEEM cryptocurrency has utility outside of just being a cryptocurrency which includes supporting social media activities (user account creation, content creation, voting, etc) is a bonus.
Today, STEEM is used (and thought of) by many as a social media blockchain. If they just thought about it as a cryptocurrency alone, they might value it much higher than they do now, based purely on it's technical capabilities as a cryptocurrency.
OH okay gotcha. I think it would have been more clear if you’d emphasised the “tokenising the web” part from the outset. I definitely agree with you that that aspect of the STEEM technology is going to be immensely valuable. In that context, yes Steemit can be seen more as a proof of concept than THE Steem product.