I think that allowing instant sign-ups is necessary, and will see a little less frustration in joining, which can only be a good thing. But I only had to wait about 1 day from signing-up to receiving my welcome email. If anything, it built the anticipation a little more.
I believe they have strict rules in place to stop people signing-up for multiple accounts (possibly IP address based). If they relaxed this rule I think it would be a mistake - as that would cater to spammers.
There'll always be people looking to profit without putting in the work, but you can't stop that and it's down to the community to make sure they don't get their way.
Overall I share your optimism. I can't see how Steemit would fail from here. The whole model is so much better than is available elsewhere and there's a big community heavily invested in growing it. Onward and upward!
Steemit could fail...the steem blockchain..not a chance.
Yes, the blockchain, not a chance! But I really can't see how Steemit fails either...unless there's another STEEM app which takes its place - and even then, a lot of people enjoy blogging, so even a "Facebook killer" app wouldn't necessarily kill Steemit off too.
And I think DTube probably has a bigger chance of mainstream adoption, which automatically brings people into the ecosystem.