Thanks for your well thought post! I think in most points you are right, but I still have some things to mention. Developers tend to use easy implementable solutions and there will be a reason, why they did this in this case too. Since this is still in beta work in progress, I currently see it like a bug, which never got fixed, because it may take some time and the system still works without fixing it.
This explanation fits to the question, why we use Google search here, as well. In the end we will need to develop an own search tool, because many people want to search for a word in a specific topic. It would even be possible to search for lost content, which may have been missed by other users, but still is great content. I think of a search tool that can do things like: (show me all posts with words "X" from yesterday in category "X" with more/less than "X" views)...
The things NSA is doing don't interest me here. I've a problem with the scripts running on every page, without a reason for people, who don't use any functionalities of it. My words "I don't like that they know, how I move my mouse on Steemit" is my mild form for saying: "I don't like that an external company is able to read, what I enter into a password field on Steemit". Since here is money involved and some people may have lots of it in their account, it may be relevant for all of us...
You've highlighted an important issue, @steemchiller
One Steemit USP is that the blockchain enables a censor-resistant, anonymized platform.
It would be interesting to see how this would play out.