Makes sense to invest time in Steem. But one has to put in great networking efforts to make his time on Steemit count. Just writing good content isn't enough here because with 'a limited' active users, it is bit difficult to find space.
When this number of active users blows, it would be even difficult to get noticed. Though first movers will always have an advantage up their sleeve as Steem does take time to get acquainted with. (it took me three weeks to understand how it all works)
First movers always had (and will have) adwantage. Nothing new under sun . Even in cryptos
Networking and marketing efforts are indeed required and without doing enough effort in this field, it is really hard to get any rewards. That's true everywhere though. Just writing blogs doesn't earn money on WordPress. It needs to be visited and ranked and what not.
Steemit has a learing curve but it shouldn't be too hard for anyone who is willing to learn because there are tons of resources available.