it would make sense to make the core product... well, valuable

This takes time. Steemit isn't meant to be mainstream in 5 months. Of course the founders would want it to be. But it needs to naturally grow it's content base, and gain value.

Steem can differentiate from other cryptos by having a underlying value: thousands of articles with useful information.

Or it can be a useless platform. With people spamming their comments, hoping to earn as much as possible. Before the platform dies out.