The bar you are talking about happens at 500 Steem Power. Not sure what else happens, other than people start noticing you give decent payments when you upvote, and you likely see an increase in followers and commenters. I think it starts to make your Steemit presence grow in momentum quite a bit.
I've taken to posting for 100% Steem power. I'm in this for the long haul. I hope that there's support right from the top as well. I'm wondering when it will be heavily marketed, which will undoubtedly see a lot more members applying to join. But with membership as throttled as it is, I don't think getting even more applicants into waiting lists is a goal right now. Rather, to compete with Facebook and Reddit, I believe Steemit needs to figure out how to onboard millions of users much more rapidly so that the system can handle the growth we all want to see.
It will only be able to compete with Facebook and Reddit when membership is instantaneous, and the economy/rewards/payouts structure much more easily understood by newcomers.
Agreed! Thanks for the input @badastroza. I'm definitely in it for the long haul and have just recently started to change all my posts for 100% Steem Power.
I'm a little concerned about the scalability as well. I have a few friends that are trying to join but are waiting for the accounts to be approved. It's been quite some time now too.