I think the making of STEEM as a platform depends largely on a killer app. You could argue that Steemit, or DTube are killer apps, but it's too early to tell.
Both would have to be as slick, and [especially in Steemit's case] easy to use for new users as other platforms they're competing with. For DTube, that's YouTube and Steemit (with the introduction of Communities), you could argue it's up against Reddit, Facebook and possibly LinkedIn at some point.
YouTube is playing right into DTube's hands with their treatment of small creators, and as more find out about DTube's benefits for content creation, that could be the spark which lights the STEEM platform.
But to fully capitalise, Steemit needs to be much slicker (especially on mobile - with official apps with slick interfaces), and easier to understand and get started on for new users. You'll never get mass adoption until it's easy enough to explain in a sentence or two. When newbie A can show newbie B what it's all about over a 5 minute coffee break.
Innovators and early adoptors are great at working with clunky interfaces and finding their way around early versions, but the mass market is not. They need slick, simple to understand and easy to use.
Steemit has massive potential, and could be a $trillion platform, but the apps need careful management and development to stand the best chance of being #1 in such a crowded, established space...then, with the rewards model STEEM has, Facebook and the rest would have to copy or die.
I agree completely with everything you wrote here @m-ssed-t.
There is a lot of work to be done by the developers. This is not something that it fully ready for the masses. A lot needs to be streamlined to make it attractive to them.
The possibility does exist...which is exciting.
Plus, the SMT protocol, when released, will be huge because then millions through other sources.
It IS exciting. I just hope they can pull it off.
Blockchain tech can take the Internet in the direction it was originally intended to take, with decentralised systems, not big players controlling it.
And the whole premise of STEEM, allowing the community to profit from the community is the most exciting thing I've come across on the Internet since I first came to it in 1996/7 (screeching modems & all!)