I'm calling this the "grind" phase.

That's similar to my thoughts.. Recently, I've been thinking of it in terms of "the fly wheel effect", that was mentioned in John Rossman's book, The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles Behind the World's Most Disruptive Company. I talked about the concept a couple years ago in part 1 of a 3-part book review, part 1, part 2, and part 3.

With a fly wheel, getting the thing moving is the hardest part. But after you muscle through the hard part, the faster it spins the easier it gets. Unfortunately, I think we let the metaphorical fly wheel lose its momentum, and now we find ourselves squarely back in the "brute force" phase trying to get it spinning again.

Rossman's discussion of the flywheel effect was in the book's section on the principle: "Obsess over the customer." I wonder how that principle applies to the various stakeholders on the Steem blockchain.