RE: Why Has Hive Not Achieved "Mass Adoption"?

That's a good point. Most Hive users haven't been too enthusiastic about onboarding new authors most likely partly for that reason. That does not apply to the largest stakeholders, though. The more you have stake the larger the share of curation rewards of your total rewards. That's when you stand to benefit the most from a growing community also fueling speculative interest in the token.