The trouble with the non-monetary benefits that you mention (no advertising, you can control your feed etc), is that they go out of the door when you put dollars and cents next to every post and comment.
Facebook doesn't have this - so of course the users then measure the place using intangibles. But as soon as you put a value on stuff, that is how it will be valued. It won't be any good telling someone who got 1 cent for their work "but arn't you glad there is no advertising".
As for the price - it is falling because people are cashing out. On poloniex you see some pretty big trades which depress the price. Instead of selling slowly, some people are selling all in one go, just in case the price falls further.
Alyssa, I don't disagree that the value of the posts showing on here is an issue in terms of discouraging people, but if they join for the no-monetary benefits, they are more likely to stick around when they see their posts making nothing. If they joined for the monetary benefits only, and then make nothing, we lose them for sure.
In terms of the price falling, it is fairly stable. I do see it is dipping again:
http://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/steem/#charts
Interesting to see my screenshot was just prior to the most recent dip. This actually just proves my point that currency speculation is not a safe way to grow the platform. People need to have a reason to hold SP beyond speculation or else if the price dips to much they will just sell. It may take 2 years to pull out, but that just means it takes longer to crash, which is no good.