I really think community is the number one important thing in Steemit and I am amazed on a daily basis by all the awesome things going on here! Since right after I joined I have been part of the minnowsupport discord community which was like a breath of fresh air in the complexities of steemit. For a few months now I've been a moderator there and we have grown to over 12k members! I don't know if I would have survived my first few months here if I hadn't found a support network. Since then it has blossomed and I've joined some other communities (slothicorn, creative commons art, music groups) and managed to find some of the most amazing/caring people I've ever met.
I don't have a pitch lol I just wanted to say your title caught my eye as it is so true. Help others and give what you can and it pays back in spades by making the whole platform better. I'm excited to see what the Eos platform will be, it might give steemit a kick in the butt to do even better!
Oh and this is the only concrete number I can find as of this moment: Current number of Steemit users: 761007, we'll be hitting 1 million in no time :)