Resteemed, always great to hear really well thought out predictions, of course it's incredibly hard to tell what will happen with it all, is Steemit heading for the next 'Instagram' or the next 'Eye Em'? It's impossible to say for sure but I do agree that if we don't see some changes (sign up system being top of that list, and the ability to handle more users without the downtime that we've all experienced) then Steemit may well be replaced at the top of the Blockchain Social Media front.
I fully agree that when photographers do jump in, they will do so en-mass, especially within the niches, wedding photography for example, once a few hop over, the whole thing goes mad for a while, until people realise that it's persistence that pays off, and so we get a quick decline when most see little 'fast cash'. I also think a failure to understand the community aspect here on Steemit will increase the dropout rate.
In many ways it's all down to the mainstream adoption of blockchain too, although at this point I feel like we're far enough down the road to say that blockchain is here to stay!