They have zero plans on "improving the Steem Blockchain" and much less so about "finishing SMT".

They think the Steem blockchain, as is, is a failure of design and they are going to create a new blockchain from scratch. I wish they would have shared more information about their plans so the other community members don't have to come pick up their slack.

To reiterate, they are NOT saving the Steem blockchain or planning to continue the Steem community with the existing Steemd code. They are likely not even going to base their code off Steem but thats just my assumption and has no evidence backing it.