@anonymint thanks for your insight.
I will agree with you that not all traffic is 'good' traffic - in regards to monetizing an article for an author. However, I do believe that getting eyes on the platform in the first place is definitely a step forward in the right direction for Steemit.
At the moment, in my opinion, we need more people to become aware of the platform and its potential. If we can successfully attract more eyeballs onto Steemit articles, I believe conversion rates would be quite high - from passive reader, to active author/curator. I believe, that is half the battle.
I also believe any conversion from passive reader to active curator/author, has an indirect effect on the author of the original post that got the new user to the platform in the first place. Sure, they may not be paid immediately (then again, who says that new user won't sign up and throw an upvote their way), however Steemit gaining popularity will surely only increase revenue for the author, in the long term.
What does Steem offer that is an advantage?
Author/curation rewards
I think the idea of being paid to create and/or curate content is a compelling argument for a passive reader to join the community over Medium. I believe, once Steemit has actual eyeballs on its platform, it 'sells itself'.Censorship free
The added advantage of a near censorship free platform, thanks, in part due to the nature of the blockchain. Something 'Medium' (a Twitter owned company) simply cannot provide. I believe this will become even more important in the coming years.
A smaller audience?
Well, sure - for the moment. Keep in mind, we have only just launched in July 2016 and we are still gaining traction here. The silver bullet is, an author is paid for their content directly, by that (currently) smaller audience.
It will be interesting to watch how this all plays out actually. I know which platform I would prefer to be blogging on. ;-)
Medium's stats support my belief that vast majority of readers do not want to write blogs. And the vast majority of social networking users don't even want to read blogs!
I don't think the censorship issue is even in the consciousness of most readers and even bloggers.
Thus I conclude Steem has not found any low-hanging viral fruit.
I would not prefer to be blogging on Steem (as compared to a replacement for Steem that wasn't reliant on whales and note I am coding such now), because I am totally dependent on the whales, both for my reward, visibility and also for the security of the blockchain.