ETH has its smart contracts for sure, but it also is a infrastructure blockchain, allowing others to build on it instead of creating new chains....at the same time, ETH is very well at gaining traction for private clones of itself with big corportation (see Ethereum Enterprise)...
So ETH has a fully different story...that said - it also still has to overcome some open issues...will be interesting.
I am with you regarding Steem - it did boost off the last days (I actually missed it and just saw it today while gathering the data of my article)...good thing.
But I think, steemit has to get some stuff done to become more than a "crypto-blogger's baby"...and I want that!
XMR - well - from what I learned the community can be very ... aggressive in its tone towards other currencies...and their proposition is not unique - zCash and "DeepWebCash" and others are all into the "anonymous currency" game...momentarily I personally doubt it will be XMR that will win that game...but who know?
RE: Who is investing so much into "anything blockchain"?