I think the falling price you refer to has more to do with the 5000% inflation in the first year. The falling price we see right now is falling much quicker than inflation of 1% daily. The previous project from Dan was tanking as well and never recovered and stayed low (is not dead yet, although Dan talked in an article in past tense regarding the project).

I think Steem is different, the design is much better. And even though it might be better to have a million users instead of 50.000 it is growing steadily in user figures... Something the previous project lacked...