What about in reverse?
Give a small amount of reward for people to use the service which undoubtedly would gain you uptake.

Personally I think this is too little too late. Steemit needed this before communities or with the launch of communities. So many have left since those days and I would imagine 'lack of social engagement' is high on reasons why.

So if I was a developer here I would most definitely be creating an incentive for people that contribute to engagement to be rewarded incrementally. I would actually be further developing it as a 'mobile Blockchain portal' to Hive and to the world of Blockchain in general. To cater not just to the audience of Hive but the many that do all their chat on discord and other chat clients outside of Blockchains but are essentially 'Blockchain People'. That's a niche which would definitely find a 'crypto chat client' enticing and something that would give Hive and devs on this Blockchain clout.

That's what is missing in this so called "web 3.0" .. ACTUAL SOCIAL tools and engagement. That's why mainstream doesn't care much for what is provided here. When people start to take this seriously and develop for that audience, then, AND ONLY THEN will you get user growth.