I think it is true that steem is one of the most used blockchains out there but it is literally non existent in the minds of crypto enthusiast post 2017, would you agree with with and if so why do you think this is?
Yeah sure, but hype isn't everything. There is definitely a fundamental form of value present with the Steem blockchain.
You'd be surprised at how many projects are being developed on there.
Well, I think Steem lacks popularity because it has seemingly gone downhill ever since Dan Larimer left, Dan is generally extremely good at getting people interested in his projects, just look at EOS.
Mistakes have been made when he left, there wasn't any significant development for quite some time & there definitely has been some mismanagement of fund (look at the 70% lay-off of staff).
Things are getting better though, Steemit Inc. is communicating more, as can be seen
here and they've hired some talented people to manage their company.
I suspect that Steem will slowly regain popularity in the future, especially when they launch SMTs. I definitely could be wrong, but it's a project that's very interesting from a technical point of view.
I agree that steem has lot of potential but unfortunately it is not locked.
I am loving the Dapps/games created in steem.