Have you done your own research into the matter or just took Preston Byrne's word for it? BTSX has high Chinese volumes because the Eastern marketing effort is going better than the West, and also that the few exchanges listing BTSX happen to be majority in China. This is truly a global project with many Chinese holders, developers, and stakeholders involved, including those trying to make short term gains. DACsunlimited which releases the BitSharesX code is based in Hong Kong after all.
I think it's easy to dismiss something you don't understand as "poorly" designed. I'll give you an overview of my personal reasons for holding my BTSX for the long run:
1) Delegated Proof of Stake ensures the network is resilient to malicious / poorly ran delegates by allowing stakeholders to effectively "fire" delegates via their voting power. Votes are cast every time a transaction is sent. Delegates are "hired" by voters to produce blocks, and they get a portion of the transaction fees at a scalable rate (Pay Rate == delegate pay, Burn Rate == stakeholder pay). When delegates decrease their pay rate / increase their burn rate, more transaction fees are "burned" or destroyed, decreasing the total amount of shares in the system. Because of this, BTSX is deflationary and increases in value over a long term. Delegates can design their campaign to use their pay rate creatively, i.e. charity delegates, delegates for funding marketing, delegates for funding development, etc. In this way a DAC (Decentralized Autonomous Company) can operate in a profitable manner and use funds to bolster the community. This is good for the environment too, as energy doesn't need to be wasted needlessly in order to produce blocks as with PoW. Also, 10 second max block times makes using the wallet feel as natural as using plastic on the web. No waiting around for confirmation times anymore. Infographic:
http://wiki.bitshares.org/images/5/5a/DPOS-infographic.jpg2) TITAN (Transfer Invisibly To Any Name) is a new technology that allows transactions to be sent to names registered in the blockchain, instead of unwieldy transaction hash addresses. It keeps the names privately encrypted so that the parties involved can see the transactions in the wallet, but otherwise the blockchain shows addresses that can't be traced back to the name. An encrypted memo can also be included in the transaction. This also makes using the wallet feel natural, as you can send value to monikers and real names of people that you can recall by memory. Infographic:
http://wiki.bitshares.org/index.php/File:TITAN_Infographic.jpg3) Consensus Markets are really cool. Polymorphic digital assets such as bitUSD are just getting out of the gate but the peg has been tracking pretty well. bitUSD is "printed" by the market by using BTSX as collateral, with an "FDIC" style insurance fund that is grown by the DAC from collecting the difference between two matched orders (Note: BTSX uses a modified matching algo than traditional markets:
http://wiki.bitshares.org/index.php/Bitshares_X#Order_Matching_Algorithm). I feel we will see it stabilize more after the first short squeeze, which is likely going to be triggered by a continued decrease in price. I love the fact that I can "cash" out to bitUSD to hedge my risk from volatility directly in the BTSX market! No longer do I have to trust 3rd party exchanges with my value. Also, I can make money when BTSX is in a bubble by buying BitUSD, and then selling it later when the bubble pops and the price decreases. This increases my overall BTSX stake because the bitUSD costs more BTSX when BTSX is lower. There is currrently a lot of potential for such arbitrage, and participating in it will only help to strengthen the peg.
Don't knock it until you try it!
