While my gateway into Crypto has been mining ETH, ZEC & others, I agree with a lot of what you are saying.
STEEM is the only Crypto that has me wanting to buy it because of what I can DO with it rather than just because I think it will go up or generally support the concept.
I think that this will come for other cryptos, but its here already with Steem!
It is a bit addictive really, just like Facebook was in the beginning, but without the value of your content being sucked out by Zuckerberg like in the Matrix.
Your content was sucked by the Zuck!
You've made a great point about the inherent usefulness of Steem. I feel another post brewing...