Hive and peakd specifically has improved the experience tremendously compared to how steemit was when I joined in 2017. I'm massively impressed by the development and improvement made by those contributing their time and efforts. I myself contribute 0 and do not participate in trying to improve!
That said, I do agree that finding hive is difficult, getting an account is complicated for a social network, how it works is complex, confusing and off-putting for a majority.
Focusing foremost on financial gains is rarely successful. As everything about crypto is at the bottom about financial gain, it struggles to become actually useful, of interest and successful. It is also an individual endeavor, making it extra difficult to create a successful social network based on crypto. It is a game of greater fools theory, and as much as I applaud the Hive community and its developers, Hive will not be successful (in terms of content and users) in this environment.
Maybe that is the goal. To have a small but focused community that rewards it's investors proportionately and therefore does not really grow or appeal to the masses. Nothing really wrong with that I guess.
I do think the developers are doing great work but they have also already all signed up already. 😄 Easy to forget about that process when you don't deal with it anymore.
Obviously I do not contribute either so they have every right to ignore people like me and do what they want. I just feel like it could be much more than it is.