Totally agree!

Give the initial Steem to the referrer, or at least reduce the amount for new users and give a specific amount, plus "commissions" to whomever recruited them.

I understand that there is a mechanism available to make this possible, but it has not been implemented. Not being very technical, I can't say much more about it.

Other features are being developed that can help with editing, but some of it is still a bit difficult. The Ladder project and Streemian's post scheduler both are helpful.

The idea of having a Disqus type plugin, as has been discussed, providing cross posting of articles, comments and votes, would be a huge benefit, IMO. This would provide a major means of pushing the use of Steemit far beyond Steemit.com.

For now, the simple task of importing articles and converting the format is problematic. Even getting that sorted would be a nice step.

Merry Christmas