I don't have all the answers either. I just think that Hive could be considered as an alternative to the corporate platforms that are getting worse. FB bombards you with ads and 'suggestions' so you can hardly find the stuff you actually want. Twtr has got worse since that idiot was forced to buy it. I don't use any others.
I do like Mastodon and there are lots of cool people there. There are also lots of cool people on Hive, but on a smaller scale. Hive is open source and anyone can contribute to running the infrastructure, so it ticks those boxes for me. I'm not rushing to join other platforms as I waste enough time online as it is.
People who have come to Hive will have various reasons. Of course many are attracted by the 'free money' and that could make a difference when they only make a few bucks per week from their regular job. For the likes of us it may just be beer/coffee money. The 'freedom' seekers will be a tiny minority. There are millions out there dealing in crypto, but most are driven by greed rather than principles. Hive seems a more natural home for them than Twtr and reddit, but it's a numbers game and they go where the community is.
It can be cliquey, but so are other platforms. People will hang out with those they know. There can be a tendency to support others with a big stake, but if Hive should grow then maybe that will be less of a factor. The actual 'levels' have no real meaning, but it's a way to track user numbers. I have been keeping an eye on the number with over 100k HP and that is slowly growing. These people must have some faith in Hive doing well, but it won't if they drive others away.
I do see a fair few people from the open source world on Mastodon saying crypto is crap, but they will also say AI/ML is crap. They like to express their opinions, but they are not representative of the general population who will not have strong opinions on these things. They won't care about open source/standards either. Crypto gets plenty of bad press and that's what you tend to see. Hive is not perfect, but it does not have some of the faults that are often mentioned about crypto. Beware of taking the opinions of your 'bubble' as gospel.
I don't see why Hive shouldn't be at least as big as Mastodon. Both are geeky and lack marketing. There may be some overlap in who uses them.
I am about to run my #BritList and I expect numbers to be down. However user numbers are growing in places like Venezuela, Cuba, Nigeria and Ghana.
I'm very aware of the issues after all these years and we should discuss them. But I'm still having fun and that matters to me.