Steem did grow, does grow and has huge potential to grow in future. Thing is, it competes for my money with many other impressive blockchain techs. It's a difficult decision, and not obvious at all. Will multi-billion giants like Bitcoin and Ethereum continue to grow or the bubble should burst soon? Do I prefer solid beta-stage products like Steem, BitShares and MaidSafe that all have respectable market cap of 200m+? Do their currently less impressive, but lower market cap companions — Ethereum Classic, Byteball — have greater potential for growth? Do I bet my money on a fresh new ICO hoping it to shoot and grow thousandfold? Do I diversify? In which ratios? I don't know. Which one to prefer is a question of belief.

As for your question. Some blockchain products are designed for investors. BitShares 2.0 represents itself as a Decentralized Autonomous Company. It has cash flow with income (fees from their decentralized exchange), expenses (payout to witnesses supporting the network), profit redistribution (dividends to shareholders of BTS) and governance (democratic vote weighted by BTS). This is a genuine business plan. It may or may not work, but thing is, since BTS represents a share in a company that redistributes dividends, its market value at least is not entirely based on speculation. This is what I tried to find in Steem and couldn't.