I agree completely. Why do they make it so difficult or convoluted to withdraw Steem? They allow trades but only with Poloniex, which is closed to US citizens.

And then they don't post any instructions for withdrawing Steem to an exchange. I use various wallets and exchanges all of the time and they are always very intuitive. It shouldn't be that hard.

I also agree with your points about why Steemit isn't competing any longer with FB. They just stopped updating the platform for posting. The user interface and basic premises or designs have changed very little over the years.