I am not sure better or not enters into the equation.
There are more valid questions like how many people have steem versus bitcoin?
How much development is on the steem network compared to bitcoin?
When you look at these two factors, you see the network effect in bitcoin while steem still has a long way to go.
That said, I do share your optimism. I believe STEEM is a $10 token. With all that is being developed, give it 6 months and you will see a blockchain with a lot happening. It will take a while for he developers to work some of the bugs out.
If we view users as the number of wallets ever created, then it looks like Bitcoin has a huge lead with over 18 million addresses according to blockchain.info (to be honest, I have no idea where this stat comes from since "wallets" have addresses and the former can never be greater than the later). https://blockchain.info/charts/my-wallet-n-users
Personally, I think the best way to compare users is to compare unique addresses. https://blockchain.info/charts/n-unique-addresses
But if you want to get an even more realistic understanding as to what kind of mass adoption BTC has really achieved, a node map probably gives us the best idea.
https://bitnodes.21.co/
When comparing plausible data, STEEM already beats Bitcoin hands down in this category.
Of course, that is to say nothing about the vastly superior transaction speeds, blockchain capacity and scaling attributes, nor other important strategic advantages such as security, transparency and being regulatory compliant ready.
And all that is to say nothing about Steemit being a functioning business in and of itself!
STEEM is secure, liquid money as well as one of the best business investments you could ever dream of finding. You truly have the best of both worlds in STEEM. All you’ve got in BTC is a secure storage of wealth . . . for the time being . . . for as long as everyone agrees that it is at least that . . .
In so far as development goes, it’s another “no contest” conclusion in my opinion as it is that I view quality as being much more important than quantity.
I am extremely bullish on STEEM as I am on bitcoin albeit for far different reasons.
However, I feel it premature to compare the two blockchains at this point. You mention quality over quantity....I disagree with you about quality at the steem blockchain at this point. Steemit was full of problems as recently as yesterday, Dtube still have difficulties with the videos uploading, and some of the other apps I tried are not even working. Now, I wrote a few articles the past two days why I am so bullish on STEEM since I dont view these challenges are anything more than normal growing pains of new things.
That said, Bitcoin has universities like MIT creating apps to use as a verification system for diplomas and other educational and government documents.
Ultimately, STEEM can be one of the most powerful blockchains since it is targeting an enormous segment, the content creation/social media arena. I love the foundation of a decentralized FB/Reddit, twitter, quora, and youtube and we have those apps on this chain at this moment. Work out the bugs and it could be huge.
Finally, while I am very buillish, I am not sure we can consider this business a forgone conclusion. Even this site is still in Beta phase. Unlike many on here, I am confidence @ned and his team will keep adding to the system. Even SMTs, which I think are a major gold mine, is still not received as of this moment. The entire project makes a ton of sense to me but still has to be embraced by the content creators.
In one of my posts I wrote that I feel STEEM has the potential to be a $100 token at some point.
Great topic.