Like you said, they probably can't see past the fact that people can post garbage and get paid a ton of money for it. They haven't been able to see that Steem (the token) is different than Steemit (the interface). If they were able to see the difference, they'd understand. If SBD were pegged to $1 like it was designed to be, then more merchants could use it for commerce, and the value of Steem would explode! Who wouldn't want instantaneous transactions with little-to-no transaction costs? Until that happens though, Steem will be linked to Steemit... and will probably not get the respect it deserves.