I think the recruiting and evangelizing always needed to wait until the problems were worked out. Or at least soft recruiting. Most people will only join when it become easy to join with a signup, and have better tools to connect like other social media. Waiting, and the lack of chat or other interactivity seems to be a drawback. Plus the scammy behavior that many engage in...
I don't know what non-programmers can do. Support the projects and people that resonate with your higher goals maybe. I don't like to support those who support the bidbot crap. It's against my values to see Steem deteriorated from an actual social-evaluation platform where ppl just buy their votes. That's what makes Steem look like a scam to most outsiders IMO.
You have a point about waiting until it's more appealing.
Yes, even when people have evidence to the contrary. When I told a close family member about Steemit, don't know what her sources came from, but she looked it up and after researching it, came to the conclusion that it was a scam. When I started making income, she continued to tell me it was a scam lol. In many ways we have earned this reputation.