The first SMT's are in the works, Projects like musing.io utopian.io and zappl are just a few of the plethora of projects currently in the works.
I think what is holding Steem back is the lack of exchanges it is currently listed on. Along with the SBD pairing, if more exchanges start picking up those two tokens, I think you would see a generous rise in price just because of traders.
The future is bright with Steem, $7 is a very low expectation to set