IMO it could be as big or bigger than the LEO community
Doubtful, Leo is a common interest of everyone here where STEM is only a small subset of the community.
As I mentioned elsewhere, fiat $ doesn't have to be part of it
Fiat or not it still has a USD value
Once there is an effective front-end, it isn't relying on carving out a percentage of the Hive community but stands on its own merits AND derives benefits from the Hive association.
My STEAM-topic website gets 30,000 visitors a month mainly from search because I have been posting here instead of on my actual blogs. One Python article of mine on a popular python community has had more than my entire site.
Sure, and I get that the gains are not a huge motivator for you either.