Actually, it doesn't take much away from steem. The steem could still be farmed by witnesses and we could make it so node operators also can mine steem and sbd.

Just kill the inflation to below 5% and golden. This doesn't make the token any harder to implement as a currency in sites. It makes it more likely to create buy pressure. As it has on eos and eth.

Especially if people need to buy steem to get smt's and power up for smart contracts.