to take STEEM as a tradable token for goods and services alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero and the rest. Then people could actually buy and sell using STEEM as a currency. As long as the Steem blockchain is obsessed with valuing itself and not connecting that value to external things and players, it will remain relatively valueless outside of pump and dump.)

I have reached the same conclusion.

I don't really know where SMT is going, there is talk of a token for companies. The adoption of SMT by companies will not be easy if it goes the same way. Inflation and without a wide market of the real economy that accepts it as a means of payment.

The current model of the cryptocurrency including steem does not have enough architecture to achieve get mass adoption as a means of payment. I think these are the first steps with successes and mistakes, there is still a long way to go. Many things in this model will have to be adjusted over time so that these tokens can achieve it.