It's beginning to sound to me like apps should not actually require people to create Steem accounts at all at first. Joining Steem should be as easy as joining Facebook. Just an email account or a Facebook login should be enough. An app should act as a custodian of their accounts and offer them them an opportunity to take control of their own account once they have enough Steem Power to begin transacting smoothly. This is how 3speak.online works. I don't know what 3speak.online does if the user does not want to begin using their account themselves. Will it continue to retain custody of it? Perhaps it should. As the rewards accumulate, the more incentivized the user will be to take control of their account. Another possibilty is that the app use guest accounts while posting on behalf of guest users and keep the rewards while using them to reward registered users. Even in that case, the app might want to calculate and remind the user of what they are missing out on. I don't know that the best policy is but the neat thing is that there need not be a one-size-fits-all solution.

I think the masses might not be ready to take full control over their data and to monetize the data their online activities generate. At least that probably takes some priming by mass media in stories that highlight the evils of the likes of Facebook and other social media giants.

I'd be happy if mass adoption took off on Steem. But I'm afraid it wouldn't necessarily look the same as adoption so far.