Of course, that is not going to be the gateway in for most users as it is the crypto side and earning potential that is going to attract the majority and once here, the immutability, censorship resistance, ownership model, enablement of others and the ability to forever tip with minimal upfront outlay.
If that is the case, the majority will remain very small. We won't be able to attract millions and promise them meaningful rewards and keep that promise. It would be mathematically impossible. Steem will be brought to the masses as an SMT implementation on a site they're already using, as have written. They will suddenly have an option to use some kind of funny tokens that can be traded for other tokens on the internal STEEM market and on Steem-Engine. They will not think of them as potential for any significant earning but perhaps as something like loyalty points or instruments of gamification of their experience of whatever the platform they're using.
I don't see the conflict.
SMTs can be configured in multiple ways and can be used in multiple ways, one of which you described which brings them onto Steem - the blockchain. They will see them as an earning potential though and more so if in combination with an economic collapse that drives people to look for new revenue streams to supplement, even if it is to reduce the costs of centralized entertainment like Netflix. The models and gateways are endless in detail, but the funnels in are going to be through various applications with tokenization integrated.
Ownership of experience is going to be the number one retention factor I think.
The fiat value of STEEM and the various SMTs will have to come from somewhere. There will have to be enough people willing and capable of buying the tokens. If the economy collapses, I don't think a lot of people will have the means to buy the tokens to keep their prices high.