Another distant possibility I can't rule out somehow is, that the Larimers are indeed geniuses, and everything is going extremely well, as planned.
The condition under which this came true would be met, if Steem was a project ordered by a social media major, with everything thats happening now just as a test run, and everything published now being viewed as demo content for making a good showcase.
If that cat would jump out of the box it would indeed make a nice leap.