While I do agree that Steemit is one of the most developed crypto platforms as far as adoption and usage goes, I have trouble believing that it has a bright future ahead because of its' heavily centralised content highlighting.
Basically, I would say that a lot of the cons you've mentioned outweight the pros for me to actually see Steemit is a valid long term investment.
That being said, I can see a similiar concept to steemit to appear and succeed without all of this whale centralization.