With respect, I believe this comparison is not valid at all.

Steem, like its predecessor Bitshares, and indeed 99.9999999% of all "crypto"currencies, drives the world towards an orwellian direction, where your personal financial life is no longer yours, but for the whole world to see.

Monero's privacy properties may appeal to new digital currency investors who might still be on the fence about investing.

Your average "investor" cares nothing about privacy, and indeed is probably under the delusion that BTC itself is anonymous.

Here's some food for thought: people with steem wallets worth thousands of dollars are logging in from their homes, their SBD/STEEM balance public for the whole world to see.

What if a rogue steemit employee starts selling this information? What if the servers are hacked and the harvesting of personal IP addresses begins?

It is irresponsible and foolish to store such sensitive information in the clear. Like you said and I agree with that part, both for Monero and for Steem, awareness of the platforms is low.

Just you wait until organized crime-type characters realize that there are innocent bloggers traveling around with laptops that have direct access to thousands of dollars that cannot be retrieved once stolen.

People are posting their faces, details of their travels, locations, and so on.

It's a disaster waiting to happen.