I understand your argument and I can't speak for the Witnesses. Some of them do and unbelievable amount. Some are just there by default and don't seem to do much of anything and a few worked there way into the situation after joining STEEM "late."
I will just speak for myself. STEEM wasn't distributed properly and in my opinion and a lot of other people's minds EOS is distributed more fairly. We are also supporters of @dan 's work and want him to do well.
STEEM is "almost" there and has been for two years. Let's see what EOS can do. Competition is good. Maybe SMT will be launched sooner when the competition from EOS heats up!
Competition is welcome and it's perfectly fine to be invested in both. I just choose not to use my votes from here to support the other one and I find it a conflict of interest when the same people want to govern both chains. Others are welcome to their own opinions, which I respect also.
Unless they're doing work on a private github then i doubt SMTs are as ready as people think