NXT is very well developed but my issue is the POS bag holders situation. Everyone wants to stake large amounts of NXT, yet there is little incentive to spend NXT. The alternative to NXT IMO is NEM, built from the ground up like NXT, but with PoI (Proof of Importance) algorithm oppose to Proof of Stake. NEM incentives users to regularly trade NEMs rather than hoarding and staking. Real economies are only productive if there is a circulation of money. In a NXT economy, people are incentive to hoard not spend and likely to fail as real economy. In NEM economy, users are encouraged to actively received and send NEMS to other accounts to raise the Importance to harvest more NEM, therefore has a better chance as a real economy.
Just to talk about this. There is little incentive to hoard Nxt, forging fees are very small. It's actually very hard to hold onto Nxt, because of all the assets that are traded in the Nxt asset exchange, tempting holders to invest their Nxt. Most people who follow Nxt closely have invested in various assets. These assets issuers spend the Nxt, and hopefully create a product or service that generates money, then they return the profit to assetholders in the form of Nxt dividends. This Nxt economy is going strong with the assets on the Nxt exchange having a higher market cap that Nxt itself (similar to fiat stock exchanges). In this early stage, there is much more Nxt invested in assets than returning via dividends, which is why the Nxt market cap isn't increasing despite the big community and continuous development, but when some of the projects on the Nxt asset exchange succeed, then that will change. But Nxt is one of the only alts with a flourishing fiatless economy building around it.