The value for me is the censorship resistance. Although I don't plan on posting anything offensive, just the idea that somebody can decide that I should remove a post is appalling. I don't see Hive losing this feature. Thus, I don't think it will lose its appeal.

On the other hand, the more users the blockchain has, and the more traffic, the more bloated the chain becomes. I do worry that at some point only big corporations will be able to afford the machines that serve as witnesses.

Popularity could mean that people use Hive primarily as a wallet with little interest in the dapps.