They are instead focusing on the backend, figuring out how to support larger user bases, new native features, and fixing bugs with the protocol.

IMO, this is precisely what they should be doing.

Having the front end created and run by the same people that also run the backend is a necessary starting point, but the power of the blockchain is that anyone can build a front end.

If steem ends up being very sucessful in the future, i think in five years, we'll all look back on the early days and say something like "remember when steem was so small we had to build our own front end and have people interact with the blockchain that way."