I share your frustrations 
Patience is a virtue I’ve been confronted with.
For over 12 years, I’ve been waiting for the conditions to enable what Hive is now capable of offering. At the time, blockchain was not even a thing. Look now.
We may not be coders but the world evolves faster now than ever. We may soon see a GPT-3 Hive app assistant allowing you to code from voice recognition. Empowering you and all to let go their creative might. No programmers skill required.
About chat, I know a programmer on Hive that works on chat. Let’s be patient, the World is just waking up and still shaking it’s head in amazement. We have more than we know.
You talk about steemit, I never heard of it before being a Hive user. Few months ago, I was not even aware encrypted chats or Discord existed.
We all have unique skills. I am good at connecting dots. You may be talented in something programmers are not comfortable with, but still is required to make Hive Thrive. We may not be all equal in our skills. Ok. The limited group you mentioned that can build the fundamentals of Hive can also, over time, empower users like me and you so we can contribute to our best capacity. All this takes peer-to-peer encouragement and collaboration. Focus, Time and Patience. The World has not been Free to Create in a long time. It’s only the beginning.
May I invite you to take a look at 
RE: What we do today will weigh heavily in the near future.