This is interesting, thanks for sharing. I am not a technical person so I can't comment on that aspect of steem but I will say that the recent price action suggests that the crypto space is shifting significant allocations into it. The daily trading volume was about $6M USD these past few weeks and then it skyrocketed to over $100M over the past 48 hours: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/steem/
My thinking is that this sudden surge of interest to buy steem was prompted by two things: primarily, Dan Larimer's 12/31 post calling for improved governance; secondly, the forthcoming launch of SMTs. No one knows to what extent each played a role in the sudden buying spree, but the timing of Dan's post can't be dismissed. Perhaps Dan and Ned can resolve their differences in the interest of advancing the blockchain's continued development.
In that regard, I would like to see more emphasis from Steemit Inc being drawn to the fact that the steem blockchain is currently operating at 0.11% capacity and has plenty of room to grow, as your post suggests. This may encourage further integration on exchanges to facilitate expanded access to buying and selling it. Liquidity drives markets and if steem can maintain that, the crypto community will take notice. Only then will the full extent of the network's capacity for utilization truly be realized.