You nailed it! Blockchain and User Friendly do not mix YET! I've only been here a couple of months and I spent about a week figuring out how it all worked, setting up a wallet, hive-signer, learning how to post, AND THEN there is the etiquette of the community you have to learn, and cross-posting, presenting quality content, and on and on and on - whew I'm exhausted just talking about it. At 56 years young, it wasn't what I would call fun, but I knew there was something deeper and more rewarding here than Facebook and Twitter had to offer, so I figured it out. After about an hour of trying to get my wife onboard a few weeks later she looked me dead in the eye and said, "This is WAY too complicated!" and that ended that. So yeah growth for HIVE is slow and painful and until as much effort is put into making the blockchain user-friendly as there is going into making it effective and feature-laden, I'm afraid it will continue as it is for a while longer.
P.S. Love the last photo, I would recognize that anywhere. Sedona Az and taken from The Chapel of the Holy Cross I would bet. One of my favorite places to shoot. I have done some night sky photography at that location.