You can look at the alexa for all of the dApps. All those I have checked are growing now.

I have ad-blocker on all my browsers as many do. I cannot help them out of the hole they dug since I never use them. The presence of the ads is one of the topics on @jaynie's post. 

It's hard enough to get new people to start here without telling them to go to the worst dApp we have and click ads. Maybe the whales and orcas can take that on as a project, but new users have no time for such nonsense.

>Hopefully at some point soon steemit.com will be given a serious makeover 

Ergh.... I'm hoping for a unicorn myself.

>Reflecting its role as a flagship interface for the steem blockchain.

They had their chance and they blew it. Go to the other dApps to see the excellence currently available on the STEEM blockchain. Push those and then we will really have something.