"...we're never gonna be top 10, not even top 50."
Steem advented in 2016 at #3 on Coinmarketcap. Since then social media has become the largest sector of the global financial markets while Steem, and now Hive, have continued to plunge in the rankings. The reason Hive continues to shrink while the social media market continues to grow is that >90% of rewards from the rewards pool are extracted by the whales that possess >50% of stake voting for witnesses.
If Hive well rewarded good creators for publishing content on Hive, those good creators would stay on Hive, and their good posts would attract new users that see good creators happy they publish on Hive. That is all we need, and until we have that we will not have what we need to grow and attract investors. The problem for Hive is that the current government can only retain it's total control if it retains >50% of stake voting for witnesses, so they do not want to lose their lock on governance by diluting their controlling stake with new investors that will then be able to vote that stake for witnesses.
We could be #1 in the social media rankings, and on Coinmarketcap, and all we need to do is reward good creators well so they are happy they are posting their good content on Hive, and that will attract new users, which will attract investors because Hive is a growing platform that is a good investment opportunity. Nothing else we do will suffice, and unless we do that we will continue to shrink and discourage new investment.