RE: Steem is not social media unless
I expect Steem to be used as a social media platform by nearly all of its users in the future. I also expect the majority of its users not to earn but spend money on content of their preference by tipping or powering up to be able to upvote. Most early adopters (current minnows and higher) will also use it to invest in apps and earn passive income. Earning on content will be the province of a small minority of professionals. Businesses whose core business is outside of media content production will buy Steem Power to be able to market their products effectively. Steem Power will always be an attention magnet because it allows its holder to exercise control over rewards. Large corporations will use Steem to implement loyalty programs, contests etc. to reward their customers. Public wallets will make it possible to track purchases and the effectiveness of promotion and advertising highly accurately.
I expect Steem to be used as a social media platform by nearly all of its users in the future
Yep, this is likely but it still doesn't limit it to social media alone and, it doesn't mean that is what is going on now.
The content earning for most people (as it currently stands) will draw to a close quite quickly but the form of what content is will change too.
This is part of the distribution phase, the shareholders are those who hold steem. The stakeholders (not to be confused with having stake on the pool) are those who rely on the platform for various aspects.
Large platforms can use SMTs to do the same, hopefully.
Yes, with the apps providing decentralized counterparts of popular centralized platforms. While STEEM inflation will predictably go down at a constant rate and trickly down to nothing about 20 years from now, the issuance of SBD can and probably will continue without any limit set in stone.