I think that reducing Steem's inflation (by adding more automated burns or moving at least the post reward pool into separate SMTs) will have a major impact on getting the attention of really huge investors.

That is what I'm hoping for as well. Maybe not huge investors, big would be enough, if we think at the whole world and investors out there. :)

Some savvy investors get a large stake in undervalued projects, if they consider they show great potential for the future, even if the stake is not liquid at first. But we need to outgrow much more our inflation rate to draw their attention.