I agree. You don't necessarily need speculating investors to make Steem valuable; it's a currency. If it were used in the real world for transactions more, it would become valuable because of the simple fact you can Buy Stuff With It, and easier than you can with, say, Bitcoin.
This is why I think marketing the currency, with the arguments you mention, for use in the real world needs to happen as well. Just being the better currency is no guarantee for success. There may be a slight hole in the marketing plan there.
If that currency is distuibuted around the world to millions of people, adoption as a currency is inevitable.
A very one-sided view on marketing. Millions of people may not want to have it if it isn't adopted as a currency. I think we need to both push and pull here, especially because other and increasingly similar currencies are being marketed as exactly that: convenient currencies.
Steemit.com is a distribution system for a currency. If it is successful at that, other apps like marketplaces will do the job of giving people something to do with it. Steemit.com doesn't have to do everything.
I refer to my previous comment. I could do this for hours.
I agree wholeheartedly. More users doesn't inevitably create value, although new users might buy STEEM->SP to increase their visibility. But for that kind of growth to be sustainable, continual growth is necessary, aka a bubble, it seems to me. Real increase in value depends on the desirability of holding STEEM, and the main road to that goal is STEEM becoming a widely used currency.
It's a huge hole!