I'll have to respectfully disagree with you as well :)

Think about it for a sec. Does it matter how Bitcoin is mined? Does it matter how Ethereum is mined? Does it matter how NEO is mined? Does it matter how Steem is mined?

I'd argue yes, but only marginally. The value of those tokens comes from the scarcity, perceived security of the chosen mining protocol and perceived potential. 

It's the potential of all these coins that give them most of their value. How Steem is mined at this point is pretty irrelevant in my eyes and reward distribution or "proof of brain" is still just mining.  And as I mentioned above when we're actually talking about what the coin is capable of as a currency, it's smoking all of the above blockchains.

All the problems you mention in your last paragraph are easily addressed by SMTs and that's why all the focus of the Steemit team has been on bringing them to life and not addressing perceived issues. It's quite clear that actions speak louder than words and they don't believe those issues are a threat to the blockchain.  The Steem price and rate of growth of the platform also support that stance.

That's likely because they understand that the value of the platform rests in being able to have a thousand different attempts to address those issues in the form of SMTs rather than trying to have one attempt to solve them for every app, which is a fools task.