Hello, very interesting post!
I have already written about this topic, but in Italian. I think that I will soon increase my participation in English.
I'm starting an publishing agency (in Italy), for September it will be online with a website.
I think the main problem of steemit is that there are no readers.
In steemit readers are other authors who try to develop their own steemit strategy (everyone is here to earn as authors). That is, they try to increase their followers by participating through comments. This is not good (the lack of readers) for those who put content (and readers) at the center of their project.
Steemit is more a social network platform than a blogging platform (for technical features). Therefore the main attention can only go towards relationships rather than contents. For those who want to carry out publishing projects, like me, steemit can only be considered as a simple minority element in a business strategy. At this moment I am evaluating the opportunity of this platform in helping (supporting) a professional publishing project.
I am not sure if you have read about other interfaces and SMTs but, there is a lot of potential for publishing platforms to develop as well as a lot more consumers of content to come in. What holds back a lot of viewers is the quality of content available but I see it as a 'build it and they will come' position. Currently we are early in the building phase.
You're right, I'm recently in steemit and I still have to know projects that use alternative interfaces.
For now I refer only to the main steemit platform. Both from the interface point of view and from the point of view of technical functionalities (for roles). In this sense, steemit does not facilitate the reader (the one who has no profit goal) to use this platform (registration, wallet, blockchain, and everything else). Furthermore, the platform is not easy to use to store interesting but old content, etc. (I hope soon there will be new functions in this sense). The editorial business is normally scalable while steemit rewards the content only in the first week (this is good in a social network perspective).
If I am developing professional publishing projects I will have to go where the reader is, I have no alternative to this. And steemit still needs to grow a lot in this sense.
All these things that do not help.
However, I realize my lack of knowledge of steemit. So most likely you can give me some suggestions.