I tend to agree with most of this... Top stakeholders are extremely inert and im not not holding my breath for any change.

I did do extremely well for myself with Steem and HIVE though. The price has been tanking all this time but at the same time i 10x my portfolio and im at a point where i comfortably invest 1000+ USD into multiple other things just with what i earned from STEEM and HIVE.
Had i been invested in any other token for that duration of 2-3 years id be at a loss or on equal terms.

So moneywise what you said could be true for large stake holders like you yourself were, but not for all of us.