Another couple thoughts hit me...
SMTs are going to be evolutionary. They will start as a testnet allowing people to try it out and work out any bugs. Then, after it is released, it will take a while to really have an impact. ICOs do not happen overnight.
I think the upgrade in the sign up process, which should be taking place as I write this, is going to have a greater impact on STEEM in the short term. If we can see it streamlined in the next month, that will allow more people to come on here in a faster period of time. That is what is needed.
STEEM's growth rate has been terrific yet I feel there are more being missed out upon with the manual sign up process taking so long to approve people. Automating that in some way and getting more people through will only help the daily active user count. Then, we will see the antics of FB and Google with their ban, flag, and censor buttons really helping STEEM.