Main issue is that @ned and @dan didn't do an ICO and thus the distribution of Steem is not so egalitarian which means that such a small oligopoly cannot distribute the Steem fast enough to scale to 1 million or more.
If they are smart they will start doing airdrops. If not so smart (or just plain greedy) then we got to wait for someone to fork this thing and do a proper distribution.
I'm pretty sure you can't do ICOs in the US without legal implications. I think it's better to think of the platform as an early stage startup that offers 10% of it's equity away each year. Most companies won't do this and will give investors/employees large portions of shares and figure out how to make it work without involving anyone in the public. Hence egalitarian isn't the most effective. I don't think Steve Jobs would have just said 'Here help Apple become great' and let the public figure out how to make it successful. I don't think you can throw a blockchain out there to the masses and make it work. There are so many things you need to get right. It's possible that something thrown out there will survive if it's a copycat that retains the main innovations, but I'd bet it's far better to have larger stakeholders who have talent be motivated to follow through and make it successful. It takes a lot of skill designing the right system and also just getting noticed. That's why startup founders and investors usually own a huge chunk of equity early on. I do think the large Steemit business account that is giving away Steem for new users can also be used for a referral program and that should attract a lot more businesses and stakeholders to grow the platform and make it better. That should help with the distribution you're looking for.