I have only been in for a few days, so I have little experience.
My opinion on this talk is that HIVE is not a social network (it should not be considered a "social network").
The comparison should be made with Twitter and Facebook (nowadays).
Therefore HIVE is as much a social network as the street market.
You would never call a street market "social network" (but it is).
HIVE is an ecosystem based on personal blogs. and bloggers can create and join groups.
Everything you do has an "internal cost" and this is limiting for the mass of users who are used to using Facebook and Twitter. It's a disturbing limit.
If HIVE tries to acquire users from "other worlds" with the force of the "earn money" message, in my opinion it is a huge mistake.
HIVE is a blog-based ecosystem: every blogger is a creator of content (which may or may not be liked, voted or not), but mainly it is the desire/need to have something personal to tell.
The average user doesn't have "personal material" to tell.
So... the average user has no time/want/need to have a blog.
The average user comments "for free" knowing that after 5 minutes they will talk about something else and that comment will be lost and forgotten.
The average user who prefers to repost memes, messages, images that are not his own, can use Minds, Facebook, Twitter..even Tumblr in most cases. And can be happy with that, "talking" with friends and parents and political niche.
But I think it's a mistake to try to "expand" HIVE by forcing the focus on "making money".
You just attract the wrong population and destroy the ecosystem.