Agree with you Steemit inc should focus on the core of the product which is blockchain.. as you have mentioned like like scaling, hivemind and SMTs. additionally I hope they also work on cross chain functions so that steemit can utilize the data from other blockchains and provide more power to its users>>
I also feel that many other UI products like busy.org dtube or dlive are going good on building the eco system and ui front too..