Indeed demand can offset debasement, but when price turns down that is a bitch. Eventually you'll run out of new fools to give you their money to give away to those with high rep power.
Price of course can and will go down at times, but I can't see why price flactuations is a problem, now if you are talking about a catastrophic scenario, well this can happen anywhere and at anytime, not only in crypto.
btw I believe bitcoin is more prone to burn and crash in price(a catastrophic cripling scenario) than STEEM, with STEEM the average Joe is starting to use crypto, at least thats my impression.