Here in Australia new laws are getting enacted to break up that monopoly or at the least make the giants of social pay for the content that independent news entities produce.

Is there much of a chance of anything coming out of it in Australia. The US is talking about it but the anti-trust laws are usually nothing more than political grandstanding, leading to nothing. Microsoft was targeted a couple decades back, nothing came of it. So the latest discussion of it in the US is nothing more than posturing in my opinion.

My only gripe with Hive is that it doesn't provide a transition phase or "induction" for users to ease into the system (hence only those that GET IT play the game).

I agree with this. Maybe said another way, the ease of use aspect is missing. This stuff is still too technical and hard for the new user to understand. I think that is why the discussion of lite accounts of whatever you want to call them. I think the Leo idea of using twitter and other accounts catches on with some other applications.

Let them play while figuring it all out.

Now though, it's people power that's really the system that makes it all mean anything and become successful.

I think this will always be the case. The network effect is real. So it comes down to people using what is on there. So far blockchain has few true users in comparison.