I think your vision for Steem is in large the correct one. I think the tricky thing is going to be creating cohesive user experiences that regular people want to use though. Most crypto projects aren't that reliant on "regular"(not technically inclined, not crypto literate) people using them, but Steem is, so I think one of our greatest challenges will be creating elegant and focused user experiences in a decentralized environment.
My vision is to help foster this by putting more of an emphasis on donations on the different Steem frontends and having that be the on ramp for new users. They can start by donating and commenting to help build their stake and gradually transition into a larger stake where the majority of their support can come from upvotes.
I wrote a lot about it here