Yes, John, I suspect you are missing something, and here's what I think it is:
We do have the internet. We do have banks. We do have governments that use draconian K.Y.C. regulations to get all up in everyone's business in order to monitor, track, fold, spindle, and mutilate us upon our every move. They presently have strangleholds on every cryptocurrency exchange, apart from private transactions between individuals.
What the common man needs it the ability to buy and sell freely without falling under the eye of the beast of Mordor for every quart of milk and loaf of bread he buys or sells.
When we can walk into our local convenience store and exchange Steem for USD or CDN or whatever local currency, or even better yet, simply transact in Steem for our loaf and jug, that will be a vast improvement over having to deal with the likes of Coinbase et. al.
I see your point - we do a lot of bartering in Canada to avoid the goods and services tax, so there's a way around everything - as George Harrison said, they'll tax your shoes, lol
Yes, barter is smarter.... ;) Otherwise life can be very taxing. :D