Thanks for the well put answer. I understand the idea better now. Yet, I'm not sure if I totally agree with the idea. It almost feels like when Google forced everyone that wanted to comment on YouTube to make a G+ account. I thought perhaps the greater good to the community would be to get the people in via a easy to convert system, then once they are exposed to the values and features of Steem, they could then make that decision.
I suppose its almost like a protectionist vs free market type of argument. I sure don't have the answers. It may be that Steemit will be a fun niche site then instead of a mainstream social media site. We shall see...