As long as I know steemit pay their employees with fiat, means that in the bearish market steemit may struggle to pay their employees. I don't think steemit is dead yet, they can change their payment structure.
And about the alternative, im not really sure but Mithril is the closest one to steemit.
Will it be productive if they pay their employees with cryptocurrencies as well? Because by far as I know, employees on different platform chooses to have been paid through cryptos as they also know what is the benefits that they can get through investment and trading, as well as the potential of many coins in the market.