Publishing undoubtedly is a very traditional industry. Many of the minds of these young authors are thwarted by academia who teaches them there's only one proper way to do things. I believe it's more about control than anything else.
I think focusing less on cryptocurrency would be a good strategy for bringing in more of the mainstream to Hive. So many people believe the MSM's negative narratives of crypto....how it's only used for nefarious means, how exit scams steal people's funds, etc. Anyone with a little experience in the crypto-sphere will know that that's far from the truth. There's much more unsavoriness in traditional finance than there is in this space.
The removal of "the corporate middle man" and not having to pay for outreach is reason enough for people to be coming here in droves.