The question is, if STEEM would attract enough users from other platforms without a rewards pool?
Why should they join STEEM as long as all their relatives and friends are using for example facebook?
The ideal of censorship resistant is great, but alone not enough to attract the masses, because, unfortunately(!), many (most) poeple don't care about it.
OK, one option would be of course not to care about mass adoption and the monetary value of STEEM and just focus on non-material blockchain values ...