My honest opinion is that all of the 'morality policing' and so called 'abuse fighters' on Hive is what holds it back. It's a very difficult thing because on one hand you want to have a platform that draws interest from the outside, but doesn't look like a huge dumpster fire, but on the other hand messy is what the web/internet is.
You have people who write garbage posts and get a little group of friends together that upvote each other. Then a group of whales and their flag trail come in and basically downvote them to zero making the statement that 'you are not a good fit here'.
Ultimately, what you end up with is a justice league of large stakeholders writing "Just OK" posts and getting big upvotes. If your stake is large enough, you can even shit-post and not get targeted for fear of being retaliated against.
Also, people are punished for blogging to multiple platforms. If you post on Steemit as a Hive user, then you are basically a traitor. If you post on another platform and then post it to Hive, it is treated like spam and not original. If you re-post something that you posted 5 years ago, that didn't get any views - yet the new post is a hit you'll get flagged to zero if certain whales find out.
So those are some things I believe are keeping Hive down. Steemit is a total dumpster fire, but has a massive asian user base. They are used to being censored, so it is nothing new. I believe that new people coming in keep the price bolstered while large stakeholders manipulate the market and make it seem as if things are moving and shaking. But with zero development and minimal effort it will continue to go nowhere except filling the pockets of the largest holders and top sock puppet witnesses.
Absolutely. And meanwhile, HW just got more free money from the DHF to continue their crusade to scare away new users.