What you are saying is exactly what I try to point out. As we all can see SPL is successful, however it is a standalone success story (or one of the few), and this is not prove at all that Hive as a base layer is working. I don't know what the work behind SPL was, and dont claim to understand, but your reasoning makes 100% sense. Hive is not a trash blockchain technically, wonderful things can be build on it, but it's economically broken (and most likely lacks application building support). As you point out they had to do a lot of groundwork. I get you man.
Also if I am not mistaken SPL was steemmonsters in the past. If so their killer product is basically NFTs, which is as we know is a mega killer product. I get you man, and you get it too.
It's unfortunate as I see you trying to give your view, you're being attacked by a large stake holder in the ecosystem. It would be much more wise of him (and most of the Hive community) to convert their defensive stance into actual listening. That's the start of true change, listening.
RE: Why Hive Is Failing.