Some people believe the blogging part of Steemit is primarily to distribute the coin. Once it's in the hands of enough people (hopefully spread far and wide), markets to spend the coin should develop organically, and blogging might one day become a side feature.
We already have #steemgigs for freelancing and @minnowbooster for lending. So maybe that's a good start, especially considering our small user base (25k daily).
On the other side of things, we have projects like http://view.ly that use the blockchain for purposes other than blogging. And Chainbb forums and soon @Zappl for different flavors of social media.
So I really look and dream beyond what we have now. I just hope we can get there! xD
RE: The ultimate dream for me would be a Steem blockchain that is so big and widely known that Steem tokens would be an acceptable form of currency (all the time).