good ideas! and i also feel some gratitude towards steemit, as well as hope that it reaches its full potential. here are my thoughts on your thoughts:

1. yea, slightly better website organization might help. the design in general, although i don't think it's the most important aspect right now. i say this not as an expert (so i could definitely be wrong), but just because i'm not thrilled with the website design OR functionality and i still post.
2. this is interesting, maybe you could expand on this? do you mean people selling their own stuff while generating some revenue for steemit?
3. totally agree with you on this one
4. i thought we had a group like that? maybe they need more exposure
5. steem.chat i guess, but then, yea, you'd need some dedicated helpers
6. yes, marketing in general. i think it's doing ok by word-of-mouth, but i haven't personally encountered any formal campaigns or anything.
7. you mean for people interested in helping with this endeavor in particular? or like a questionnaire for people who've just signed up?
8. personally i'd stay away from this one. too much potential for abuse, and can lead to low quality posts/interactions/usage/etc. i think the resources are better spent on getting people to recognize or experience the value of the platform first-hand, as well as address issues that new users have. i think this will have a better result, retaining more quality users
9. i'd also be very careful with this one. i think a lot of people are excited about steemit because they see it as completely decentralized without any commercial interests censoring content. if not executed well, could alienate many of those people.

in general, i think marketing should be the emphasis for a while. everything else could be improved, but getting the word out should be the #1 priority BY FAR. the target populations need to be identified. then we need short, memorable introductions to steemit, tailored to those audiences specifically. then find effective ways to reach the targets with the message. for example, off the top of my head, without any research...

• people into alternative media
• libertarians
• finance/economic people interested in cryptocurrencies/blockchain (you should see if there's any way to get some exposure on zerohedge--lots of potential users there)
• content creators, but especially more fringe in relation to mainstream. also great to pitch as a "tryout" for people who secretly dreamed of being a writer/blogger/whatever
• techies
• back to your idea of connecting with schools, i think there is huge potential for some kind of academic connection, just not sure what exactly.

anyway, you get the point. and tailoring messages to these audiences shouldn't be too hard. just get a questionnaire out asking people what initially attracted them to steem, why they finally decided to sign up, what do they use it for, yada yada. then you'll know what aspects attract which users.
i'm kind of confused as to why the official leadership has been so quiet?