The reason why STEEM is comparably not doing well is because it's not well-understood and mostly because the broader crypto audience believes it's a failed project.

So true!

Price is mostly driven by speculation. People buy crypto on speculation that its price will rise in future. Investors may avoid buying or even keep selling cryptos whose price is going down. LTC is showing strength since halving reward drives price up. Traders are buying LTC on speculation of future increase in price during halving in August.

On the other hand, Steem is being sold in fear of price decline. It is a negative virtuous cycle.

Moreover, relative higher supply of Steem is not consumed by the low demand by new investors. Steem need better marketing due to its default high inflation which is required to reward the content creators.

Yes, burning will bring speculators but sentiment reversal should be the priority. A well-planned marketing can help a long way.

A coinbase airdrop to change sentiment and burning of of STINC's 5-10M Steem can take Steem long way. Also, aggressive marketing can help. TRON, Cardano, and EOS are master of marketing. At least STINC can pay for marketing from the income through Ad revenue from Steemit.

The other idea is to drastically reduce Steem's inflation and let reward distribution work to SMTs.

Yes, sentiment and positivity is the driver of valuation rather than fundamentals. Steem is thousand times superior in features, speed and utility than BTC or LTC. But it does not matter, if investors don't buy it and feel FOMO or optimistic about it.