The digital economy (pure digital transactions, similar to steem monsters) is not a reliable economy right now because it produces nothing of useful to keep us living and breathing (at least that i can see right now).
And thats where I'm divided the most. If steem is treated like a real world currency, then its value in USD has great importance. If steem is treated like a digital world currency, how its priced in USD has no meaning, so as long as we price things in steem and keep it stable for digital goods. If that is the case then people may continue to pour in cash (similar to how a traveler goes on vacation where they can leverage exchange rates).
It can go so many ways, and unfortunately there is no driver for it to go anyway at the moment except down because of market forces.