It's all price discovery. There was a time people were saying there is no way on earth 10k of 'made-up money' (BTC) could be worth 2 pizza.

In a few years the $1000s worth of STEEM power earned here in 2016, could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, they certainly could be if (as you say), "all the journalists in the world" came here to write.

No-one 'knows' the true value of anything. That's why we have markets and exchanges, to find out how much people think things are worth (based on what they 'think' they know and what they think will happen in the future).