If we are going to think about an alternative to SMT I'd say both ideas are options, I just feel that one shouldn't be mutually exclusive of the other. A combination of the development fund + steemit inc looking at private investment + perhaps help from another blockchain in the interim is also an option.

Regarding the fund, I just think that getting buy-in from enough stakeholders takes time and yes its beneficial for the ecosystem in the long run but by the time it takes to campaign you could have spent that effort raising private funding.

Leveraging another blockchain just seems like duplicate work to me, id rather bite the bullet and go SMT first time if that were my two options

Another option is creating a centralised service that dapps can run on in the meantime and they are sync'd to the blockchain at a later stage. The service can come at a fee to dapp creators since they get the benefit of access to the steemit community!