Thanks for your comment and kind words !
I agree with every word you say. But as I don't really like too consensual comments, I will try to add information (and oppose, with little will I confess) to the things you said.

For the expectations, of course (and I said it in another comment), people come here to make a quick buck, that's the main argument in Steemit promotion. "Do what you're already doing elsewhere, but make money in the process."
People leaving when they realize Steemit doesn't live up to its promises is OK with me, but if the site was well designed, comfortable to browse, maybe they would stay for the few bucks it can reward them with. There's a lot of nice people here, concerned people, great discussions taking place so for me, if the people are leaving when desillusioned about rewards, it also tells us they're leaving because they were ONLY doing it for the rewards. If the site was better than (or at least as good as) the competition, a bigger fraction of people would stay even with rewards lower than their first expectations.

For the price of STEEM, the link is clear (even if I didn't provide with data), but we're seeing it right now, since a few weeks.

For the fixes :

1. On the UI : Totally, Steemit seems so outdated, only geeks can tolerate evolving in this kind of environment.
2. For the delegations : yes Steem Inc. is only thinking about the Steem blockchain, but that could be a trap. For now Steemit is the only (almost) thing adding value to STEEM. Neglecting it could make STEEM go directly to the alt-coin cemetery by the time other things (SMTs, apps) become operational and adopted / used.
3. I didn't think of it, it's a really good solution to the problem.

Thanks again for your well-constructed and informative comment !