Good article and easy to read.
I completely agree, when I first went through some tutorials to find out how steem works I had the same idea.
Its better to convert to steem power due to longterm benefits instead of cashing it out especially since the network still is in its beta and will gain a lot more users in 2018.

I wouldnt be surprised if steem ends up this year with ~25 million users due to a massive growing media attention especially on youtube.