Sorry you are getting down voted. I don't view what you are sharing as a negative, and not sure why those who down voted did either. I view it as a positive that they are not putting all the energy into Steem, and are simply using it and the community as one of several foundations. Not only could this be smarter for them, but it could strengthen the Steem community by bringing in outsiders to participate.

I can tell you as one who sold years ago on Ebay and Amazon that both have went out of their way to burn their bridges with sellers. There are so many sellers out there wishing someone could come along and compete with those two. The closest has been Etsy, but they sort of boxed themselves in as the craft place and have been fighting to expand from that for some time.

I have to wonder how many who would never have considered anything to do with crypto (this was me the beginning of this very year, but Steemit was my doorway) will see an opening in without the hassles of the exchanges.

On top of this, unlike with Steemit.inc, they will not get crushed (if they are sustainable) when the markets fall as we have seen happen here on this site. It makes me sick thinking this site might not be here this time next year, and it would be the same for any buyers/sellers that help @dstors grow into the peer to peer site that used to be associated with Ebay before they got all wall street (when they brought in Meg Whitman and John Donahoe) like.

I think at the end of this, they found a workaround to the lack of SMT on the chain to fund this project. It is ingenious if you think about it, and I hope they can pull this off. A win for them is a win for the chain, whether it is all in on Steem or not.