Steemit as a platform stunts its own growth with is manual signup review process amongst other things.
I hope that the platform can keep innovating because without any progress on the platform it will likely die or be replaced.
I have cone to terms with the fact that steem was an experiment that will be left to it users to maintain.
Yes the bottleneck is an issue, but I believe it can be overcome. While I do wish Steemit Inc would quickly automate the sign up process, they are still in Beta and are fighting giants, so I'll cut them some slack.
I believe in what they've built so far, and since they left the experiment in our hands, we'll have to become the scientists/technologists/engineers/financial experts/community leaders/etc. to keep Steemit from dying or being replaced.
-Rob
Everything flows, everything changes...