Steemit will not compete with Facebook for one simply reason - people use Facebook to connect with friends who post short simple updates on their lives.
Steemit, unfortunately, is built as a combination of a traditional blog and Reddit. The average Facebook user will not benefit from Steemit's pay system because they will never accumulate enough Steem power.
For example, imagine Joe Smo. Mr. Smo post updates to steem daily, like he does on Facebook. He post messages such as, "Just took a massive poop. It was wild!" and "Obama sucks, and Trump smells like feet!" His friends, the people he works with or went to school with like his post, but overall they don't have enough collective Steem power, because they also only post small life updates.
For Joe's post he may reach a dollar total worth if he is lucky and all of his friends up-vote him. By the time curation fees are taken he ends up with 75 cents for his best received posts.
Therefor, the average user will never see anything but the lowest of price gains for using the system. On the other hand, Steemit is a great platform for Youtube stars, and bloggers to reach a larger audience and make money without having to go through affiliate marketing.
That may have been true in the beginning - but Facebook has grown to much more than that. I guarantee that Steemit will grow, scale and adapt to compete with these platforms on a more even playing field.
In my opinion, yes Steemit is different to Facebook, but it signifies a shift in the content that we put out. The influx of users signifies that how we connect is changing - people want to share deeper opinions with everyone, including friends and family. They also want to connect with close friends, and will be something that Steemit will look at in the future I'm sure. Thanks for your comment!