First, I like the idea of bringing up posts which direct traffics as worthy of rewards. I think it is indeed important for growth for people to click those links and comeback to Leofinance and Hive. Curation is tricky but important and efforts to improve it on Leofinance seem popular. I think especially amongst the newer members with small networks.
I think Leofinance has been talking about rewarding Leopower to Leopower stakers and potentially those whose posts generate traffic. I think this is a good idea.

Second, the comments section brought up other points impeding Hives growth, mainly downvotes. Hive has reputation for having a downvote culture and this on top of the steep learning curve is a factor, I think, in the lack of growth.

Personally I wish Dan Larimer was more active here to help guide Hive in a more of a reward what you like and ignore what you don’t like mentality, and reduce or redirect resources from downvotes to finding new accounts, curating them, providing positive feedback and gentle guidance.

Censorship via removing rewards or removing reputation and rendering peoples posts invisible are called everything except what they look like, which is censorship. If you get 200 plus votes, but a whale downvotes your rewards to zero you can’t make it to trending and your voice is effectively silenced.

On a more sensitive note; When Hive split off Steemit, I thought Steemit would become a ghost town. But it didn’t and relatively large communities stayed there.
I think it suggests that not everyone feared the authoritarian behavior of the new leadership as much as they feared the authoritarian behavior of the old leadership, not all, but some of the people who moved to Hive were not missed on Steemit.

I realize these are sensitive subjects, but it’s important to realize Hive isn’t a perfect place, it has issues restricting its growth. I am proposing one idea as part of a solution, but not as a magic bullet. Because Hive issues are multi factorial and because reputations are hard to change. But important first steps are one you have suggested :to stop talking to the choir about the choir, tell people outside the community. And stop chasing away new members, and stop chasing away old members if real growth is the goal.