I like your disposition. Infact, i admire every project and initiative. I was ask a question yesterday about my view on the same issue and my here:

https://steemit.com/steemit/@surpassinggoogle/putanginamo-don-t-say-that-phrase-if-you-are-steemit-user-in-the-philippines-for-your-reputation-may-go-down-a-notch

and my outlook is similar to yours. It is not easy to innovate things and for me, i really don't look at motive for who i am i to. i admire, i admire the innovators cos they do add value and the addiction to steemit comes from all this and including the hiccups. People who leave are tempted to still wonder what's buzzing on steemit and they simply find themselves back here and are spurred into more mining with minds and further innovation. community and tokens will fix alot. Non-steemians can even come in with their communities and coincidentally i am currently doing just that. Bringing already made visions and communities and looking at how to integrate steemit and steem into it. These are most startups comprising of youths. i had to leave the above post cos though it is in Manila, i was asked questions on my thoughts on almost all the events on steemit within a short span of time, so i think reading my general outlook is relevant.

Here is another one:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@surpassinggoogle/rewardpoolrape-is-an-illusionary-word-nothing-like-that-existed-on-steemit-why-the-trending-steemit-posts-are-really-trending

And one more thing @joseph, i do have two communities but one especially, that you didn't visit and it is called "steemgigs" and it is a beauty and this is the entire vision:
https://steemit.com/growth-projects/@steemgigs/steemit-growth-projects-steemgigs-bringing-the-beauty-of-the-steem-blockchain-and-decentralization-to-the-limelight-using-fun

It has a really broad vision with token intergration in the near future especially when tokens and community starts but for now i have been pushing it manually behind the scenes on the discord. https://discord.gg/wWrnSXK

It does have almost 350 steemians but it is a community where we know the expertise of most steemians and we already can mention one steemian in every industry. with a dev request channel and dev only channel and idea factory, a place for educators etc. we are helping direct steemians into creation of dreams and vision and instill the culture of applying their expertise in being part of history or dreams of others. We are currently using this knowledge of the steemit community to help accomplish steemit growth in the search engines if we can reach 5000 steemgigs posts and by means of the action of steemgiggers who innovate more; e.g steemit.com sponsored woodmade library has been built due to a steemgig and books and clothes have been given out in the real world, all attributed to steemit. The newbies we are bring in on steemit are also mostly startups with ready made vision but without any blockchain knowledge so we create a space for them etc it is draining for me basically but i am pushing. the truth is most of the value happens behind the scenes in the base of the community but on steemit.com the instant way to measure value is mostly by the sbd on blogs. many things do happen on the discord. for instnace at the meetup you will be amazed to find many filipino steemians who are developers and infact are developing apps to bring steemit to mainstream in the philppines. an app to make steem powered app to disrupt an asian renown bitcoin powered remittance and some are looking into making steemit.com accessible in philippines on free data like facebook which is free if you have a globe sim here and for the most part free. and steemgigs was there to spot them and we'll be given them a space on the discord to brainstorm with them. More recently, it became too draining but not tire out, got the "steemgigs" witness to keep the fire burning. We are also currently helping busy.org find developers and ekitcho is the discord to waiting to recruit. I think you should visit too. most of its power happens in the dms for now but sometimes it booms. see the dev-request centre. it is amazing when new steemians start to look at steem early beyond just the blogging!