Steem will still need to be distributed because of the requirement of RCs to use the blockchain. How it gets distributed will need to change though. Honestly, the current method of distribution isn’t the best and with HF21 it is going to get focused on a few top authors anyway, which doesn’t exactly help the situation all that much.

I could make an argument that Steem price stability is what will matter most to venders. A price that fluctuates up and down as much as Steem does is too risky for venders in my option. How do you know how to price items if the next day it drops 10%? Could you imagine if world currencies shifted like that day to day? Steem could be like the “global SMT reserve currency”. It will be trusted more than an individual SMT and therefore will be the currency of choice for traders and merchants, etc