Look, I'd love to be aboard the hype train here, but the Steem ecosystem's problems come from the top down.
Every decision made by @ned and crew seem poised to undercut the effectiveness of the system. The Steemit platform cannot be discarded without undercutting Steem itself. The recent hardfork was promising, but at the first sign of discontent, it was largely retconned.
It's not impossible for Steem to be worth $100 someday. But it is impossible for it to reach those heights with the current leadership.
The rot is at the top.
Bitcoin has done OK without Satoshi Nakamoto, so I'm sure Steem can do well without Ned in charge. I don't mind Ned, he just doesn't seem like a natural leader and a blockchain should be about many individuals, not one person.
For Steem to survive the long haul, it is imperative that we as a community move away from relying on Steem. This will take some true believers to run full nodes, that is why this is an excellent time to see who steps up.
This is the key...how to make Steem truly decentralised from Steemit.
I think reality has hit that we are a lot further from decentralisation than we (well 'I') thought. Hopefully this is the wake-up call that we all needed and we now have a chance to put it right so that we can build more confidently for the future.