I don't agree on the SMTs. They are nothing special at all and used already on many other big chains (like Tron, EOS etc). It's time for people to realize, that SMTs are just a fancy name for tokens on a blockchain and these won't save Steem nor Steemit.
The only thing that may help now, is if a big player like Tron buys Steemit and let it run on their blockchain. This is what's going to happen when Ned realizes, that the battle is lost and to win the war, he has to join forces.