It used to sit in the third place somewhere in time...and the price was nowhere near the 10$ mark...

true, and btc was nowhere near the 10k mark. I think it was worth 1k back then ;) Steem at its ath (in dollars, not satoshis) was at #30 in coinmarketcap

Considering the fact that they indeed have stopped selling someone would expect the price to go up simce there is no pressure...yet it ain’t happening

I didn't. A lot of trust has been lost all these years. Again, and again and again. It's hard to gain it back.

I think what we really need is a marketing plan and promotion.

Can't disagree with that. Hopefully, when smt's come out the smt developers will partially take care of that part, just like what happens with eth. By promoting their smt for their benefit they will also market steem as they will be interconnected.