A lot of these concepts have been explored before with the advent of Bitcoin, as all crypto-currencies share common technology and traits that can be applied in the real world. The specific coin's characteristics often determine the suitability of the real world application - so for example Bitcoin's 10 minute block time makes it unsuitable for things requiring very fast / instant processing.

I think STEEM's real potential lies in the ability for anyone to contribute, and grow their account based on their contributions, without the necessity for expensive hardware or equipment or buy ins (which is something that holds back people who want to get into other cryptocurrencies due to how expensive it is to mine/buy)

Power to the people! Happy STEEMing :)