It would be nice to see the likes of dtube perhaps offering stake to a marketing team like @steem-ambassador, who could promote them whilst they seek new accounts. A kind of, join steem and vlog or ulog your introduction post.
As far as the last point, it would not be unreasonable to suggest STEEM has been traded out in recent months to other tokens seeking to venture into the same space - diversification is a reasonable investment strategy imo.