I agree with a fair amount of what you said. It seems to me like Steemit.com leadership is more interested in marketing to the (very, very small) crypto world than to people in general, and this is reflected in several ways. (like a poor user experience and the perception of skewed priorities.)
I do not think the site's developers are to blame for this, however. Their input into what can/should be done at what time is quite limited. Rather, I hold the reddit-esque tribalism that seems baked in to the site's most influential user segments responsible.
Personally, I've been putting together a website that runs on the STEEM blockchain to augment Steemit.com. @greatdabu and I are funding this out of pocket, but since we both have other jobs and do not have an unlimited budget, it probably won't be ready until the end of the year.
Because fewer than a thousand people/day are currently posting on Steemit and Steemfest is occupying most of the influential users' attention, I plan to wait a few weeks before describing this project in detail here.