I've learned about Steem few years ago, but it was FUDedded to the death on social site where I found about it and I haven't got involved, which I regret now.
In my opinion Steem, specifically Steemit is to complicated for average person. Steem/ Steem Dollars/ Vests - too much for most of the people, I myself don't get it fully either.
Sign up process - too complicated, having to provide your phone number and wait for up to two weeks - this will put 90% of people not involved into cryptocurrencies off.
And last, but not least - earning potential. Sorry, but Steemit viewed from outside reminds me circle jerk - people doing everything in order to earn, not to share/ produce interesting content. For example, I've seen interesting post on the front page of my local version of reddit, yet it only had few dollars worth of upvotes. So you can see paradox here - posts created in order to earn may not be really valuable, but they make profit for their authors, but posts with real value don't - because, let's be honest, most of internet users don't use Steemit, so even if you post gets popular online, you won't earn as you only earn from other Steemian votes, not from outside traffic.