I'm a bit late to the party but I feel it's quite simple. You refer to it as 'selective' and 'elite' - but all it is, is a set of rules the rest of the world has to adhere to for legitimacy. We haven't changed that, we just abide by the same rules.

Whether you're a homeless bum or a wealthy doctor, everyone can enjoy the benefits of what we do... providing they follow the guidelines. There's nothing elite about it.

It only takes maybe 20 minutes to read through the guidelines and make sure your stuff fits.

And regarding steemstem.io being dead, I'm not sure how that's possible, since it simply hosts content from the blockchain, which is still very much alive. The site is not even built to completion so don't expect anything from it for a while yet =)