Hi,

We very much do still use the Steem block chain.

You can verify this by using the site while only being logged into your Steem account.

The reason we've resorted to implementing our own chain is that the Steem offering did not provide the required flexibility that we were looking for. For example, we feel it important that video creators are rewarded much beyond the limit imposed by Steem and our rewarding mechanism is also something which is similar to but not possible under Steem.

It's a shame you feel the site is broken, we obviously don't, but we'd be happy to listen to where your finding issue and perhaps we can see where you feel we could improve. User feedback is vital (both positive and negative) and is almost always welcomed.