But upvote services and fancier versions of Steemit don't really provide a valuable enough experience to the novel user.
This is a big problem. Many developers come to Steem and think to themselves:
How can I make money off of this?
Instead of asking:
How can I bring value to the platform?
Most people think these two questions equate to the same result, but then we see thousands of programming hours being pumped into these idiotic vote buying services and other garbage designed around the sole intent on leeching the platform instead of providing value.
It's not even that these services aren't useful. Because to some users they are useful. But to add to your point, they aren't adding any value to potential new users to stick around. They are providing services to people that are already here. The growth potential of that type of development isn't very high.