I usually think reason #3 is what's going on, but sometimes I go for a reason #4 - they're just fucking clueless. :)

I too think @steemspeak is the dogs bollocks, and craps all over steemit, even at this early stage. Not to give @asgarth any more work ;), but I hope that we can push steempeak as the go-to default choice as a front end for steem. Once they have notifications and messaging working on it, it's going to have everything a new user on a social media site expects.

Regarding steemit, I was told last year while I was developing my notification system that steemit was to have notifications in place by the end of last year. Well that certainly didn't happen. Perhaps they are focussing all their attention on SMT's and communities. And that's not a bad thing either. They could be a real game changer.