I have taken some design/art classes before and believe there is too much empty space or negative space that kinda makes it not efficient to navigate. I think people would prefer a more simple design mostly based off the one that already exists like in the screenshot of this post:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@r0achtheunsavory/steemit-feature-wish-list
Yes, for sure there is plenty of room for improvements and once I transform this on a usable mockup new ideas will come along. I like some of yours suggestions like a better profile page and messaging. Great work.