The only real draw of the STEEM blockchain was to get rewarded for your content. All the dApps and whatever else is going on is pointless and overrated. Steemit INC squandered away a lot of money by turning Steemit from what it was to what it is today.
I was looking for alternatives for entirely different reasons, then found a standalone frontend to Steem called eSteem Surfer. I guess I'll be using them instead of Steemit (or other web-based frontends). I just must find a clever way to link to my posts on the blockchain without going to these web-apps.
People have been building apps and stuff on Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc without a "second layer reward pool" like Steem anyway..