Sorry, as a UX designer I have to firstly make a comment about the 'desire path' concept/image that you have used in that we shouldn't look at the problem of creating what is the 'best' solution because there probably isn't one. You can read more about the fallacy of the 'desire path' from someone who designs paths here: https://medium.com/@VicTheSlowMo/whats-missing-from-that-ux-path-analogy-6cf1c68ea049

I think any applications build on top of the blockchain introduces new behaviours and interactions, and so I have tried to spend some time using Steemit and Busy.org myself and see how we can improve the user experience. Any social media platform that tries to cater for a very diverse audience will unfortunately have to create an established path, and then observe the many number of 'desire paths' created by different types of users. But it is an interesting challenge that I hope other UX designers who are also Steemians will try and solve by engaging more users here and understanding their needs.

Personally I think being able to visually navigate the different posts/comments/threads would be a fantastic way to create an engaging interface (and also to keep the display on one window/tab), so I think you have inspired me to work on some design concepts to share with people here and promote more discussions.