"will every minnow/flounder/small sea creature jump ship to the next blockchain based social media"

Steem has a very big headstart. Because we already have a decent userbase and a good amount of content

If we write enough quality content as a community. Other platforms should have a hard time getting by.

In the end the whales decided when-ether the minnows can get a fair share of the pie. So watching whale behaviour is more important than the countless minnows we have.