I have been shouting about it since 2017. Here's one example: https://steemit.com/steem/@liberosist/for-a-better-steem-remove-the-steem-reward-pool-533b951904d14

Unfortunately, that was 2018. It is 2020 now, and it's too late for SMTs. It is 2020 now, and Reddit is in the social media tokenization game, and Twitter is working on a blockchain solution. Not to mention Dan Larimer has billions in the Block one warchest to promote Voice. (Which I also think is destined for failure, but that's another matter...)

I have stated my thoughts clearly in the OP, and multiple times over several years. Tl;dr - cancel the reward pool, drop inflation to lowest possible to retain security, move HBD into maintenance mode, introduce SMTs, build in some functionality to focus on gaming and social media (rather than just custom.json), build zk-rollup-like solutions to build out a secure Layer 2, and most importantly of all, build ethereum and bitcoin interoperability and full EVM compatibility. Do all of this, and I think Hive has a fighting chance of creating its own sustainable niche, assuming there's great marketing.