This isn't so much an issue with the user base and growth, while we have had issues with users gaining steem accounts, our primary concerns were related to on-going monetisation of users content (past 7 days), having a single liquid asset which would provide the basis for voting power and an ability to provide an uncapped voting asset.

We also took issue with the rampant use of "bidbots" and other activities which are almost encouraged in the steem environment. Through the remove of "delegation" features we are able to combat that and we can ensure that votes are cast by users as opposed to being paid for.

This isn't an issue of monetisation, as stated, it's an issue of flexibility and of the operations provided by the chain.