Glad you asked Joe.

Firstly, I would extend the second window for rewards in perpetuity, such that it's continually awarded payouts on a regular basis (daily/weekly). This would, in fact change the dynamics greatly, but it'd encourage people to update content they have that's great and further encourage high quality content. Don't forget that Google loves this, so Steemit would gain a lot from the SERPs.

Secondly, language preference filtering. I don't know Korean, unfortunately.

Thirdly, a greater understanding from the community and maybe a section, for generosity and charity. It's not surprising that these types of articles have become commonplace. But, if they don't stop rising to the top of Steemit regularly/daily, new people coming to the platform aren't going to frequent the site. And they certainly aren't going to invest their money into STEEM tokens.

What's needed for Steemit to move forward are companies willing to promote their own blog content because the readership is of high quality, the site is known for amazing content, etc. Right now it's a hodgepodge of random crap: mostly girls globetrotting around, charity pleas, and nerdy crypto crap (that I love), but the rest of the world doesn't care about.

When Steemit starts getting articles floating to the top that resemble articles frequently seen on Medium, it'll start looking promising. Until that point, it's just going to fade away as another quirky blogging platform with an awesome model to reward bloggers, but with little interest from the outside for further investment.

Keep in mind, that STEEM is inflationary. The blockchain just prints more money, devaluing your STEEM to pay out to bloggers. The only way to encourage people to want to invest in this is through utility or speculation. Speculation is looking a little bleak at the moment and utility is diminishing.