Whats the incentive to come over to steem? Why should a normal person choose to pay money to access this platform?
Not only does Steem have to overcome the cryptocurrency stigma; it has to contend with the inherent flaws of being a social media platform without any true moderation. The main exposure of the platform are from things like cliques, infighting, drama, and bidbots; you rarely read a news article on steem that talks positively about the platform these days.
Also, don't you guys see the irony of gating off a "decentralized" community? Steem inc shouldn't be worried about the social platform; instead they should be making the technology better and leaving moderation to the community. Its still fairly expensive to deploy a witness; until this is fixed, the platform stays centralized.