Maybe those tokens on steem-engine are shitcoins...
...and currently these big STEEM investors probably don't see any value in them, but honestly they do make people active again! Isn't that the most important thing for a social media platform?
You can also say that the volumes that those tokens are doing on the steem-engine are small, but if we check STEEM then the volume is not that much better if we put away wash trading and fake volume. HitBTC, really? Don't forget that all of this is still pretty new.
I also think times of good content are finally coming back. Why? Not only because these new tokens created a new set of whales, but also because of the creator/curator split - it actually makes sense to curate these tokenized tags with your stake.
People not engaged in these communities are missing out of all the fun! That's also something social media platform should be - fun and enjoyable.
Right now it's both.
I'm currently eyeing more than one of these tokens. PALnet for example gives back more than STEEM if Stacked the same value which is interesting!
I think you are totaly right, this tokens are social media tokens and they will work like social media works. Interacting between the issuer <-> investor and investor <-> investor.
They will never grow huge.