Steemit is just a platform built on the steem blockchain right?

Yes.
But why is it that you have to open a steem account using only steemit? There has to be another way and it should be made easier and faster.

Steem is an amazing cryptocurrency and I love it.
But to encourage more decentralized applications to be built on the steem blockchain and to encourage a wide range of users. There has to be a way one can open a steem account easily that would be connected to any website, web based application and decentralized applications that will use the SMT on the steem blockchain.