I suggested that but it was not well received unfortunately. I don't think Steem will ever adopt privacy features due to political objectives of Steemit.inc but I do think witnesses could be convinced someday perhaps.
I more importantly is whether or not Tauchain which seeks to build a decentralized social network makes the decision to have private computations or not. It's a very critical decision which will have to be made for any social network but particularly for Tauchain. I think Steem already made their decision and has to live with the open network and all the problems from that choice.
I think there can always be a compromise of some sort. Me myself I would not mind advertisement on Steemit (some, not too much). It would help to inject capital and raise Steem and thus benefit everyone holding Steem tokens. But I guess advertisement is even a bigger no no for Steemit inc.