As far as I can tell the moms on the site know next to nothing about any of the blockchain and incentive stuff you call groupthink. That is certainly true of the ones I know personally. They just think it is a cool idea and fun. Whether it holds attention longer term I don't know.
What is a cool idea? What specifically do they think is cool about blogging on Steemit that they couldn't do any where else before?
They like the idea of people voting giving rewards rather than just voting to vote. They don't really know or care about the algorithms. If they get $1 or even less on a comment they're pretty happy with it. They don't expect to make as much as the big winners on the front page are are not disappointed that they don't (but perhaps they do secretly hope to get there someday, and maybe that is indeed part of the draw).
I don't vote on their stuff in case you are wondering because my goal is not to give away free money to people I know. I'd rather see how their perceptions evolve without interference.