I don't really have much more time for Steiner's original ideas than for those Blavatsky or Hubbard, but yet I have to concede this good point. Somehow Steiner's work has been carried on widely, long after his death. There are lots of Waldorf schools around the world, and (I understand) lots of biodynamic farms. I don't think these enterprises have really been significantly better than mainstream alternatives, but I'll concede that they don't seem to have been significantly worse, either.
And given that, if a lot of people actually involved in the Steinerite stuff have found it worthwhile, then who am I to call them stupid? Even if all Steiner really did was express harmless but insignificant content in a style that some people really like, well, that's not a bad thing. Few people succeed in doing as much. And of course it could be that Steiner really was a good, honest craftsman, who turned out some good, solid work that I've failed to appreciate fairly, even if he didn't really set the world on fire.
So somehow I have to grudgingly admit that Steiner is in a totally different class. Maybe it's because he was better trained, but I suspect it was probably mostly because he was more sincere. Even if he had some ego issues, he seems to have been genuinely trying to improve the world around him, even at personal risk and cost. Responsible people really did seek his help, and even if they were misguided to do so, this is in any case a very different record for Steiner from the invented heroics of Hubbard. And Steiner collaborated with others without hiding their contributions. That's an important indicator right there.
There is an important factor here. Many of these earlier spiritual movements also, as a sort of ancillary factor, got involved in OTHER aspects of improving mankind.
For example, Annie Besant of Theosophy was an avid supporter of "freeing India from English imperialist rule". There are streets named after her in India. Even though Blavatsky urged Theosophy to stay out of politics, Annie was a radical in certain regards. She was an early supporter of women's rights and birth control. These aspects did not really have ANYTHING to do with the core materials of Theosophy, yet became LINKED with the subject.
H. S. Olcott had his own personal hobbyhorse with Buddhism, much to Blavatsky's annoyance at times. In Ceylon he did a great deal of work to start schools, and to fight with legislation to protect Buddhists from the creeping fanaticism of the often over-zealous Christian missionaries.
These people often truly DID want to help mankind, and even did so along various social channels, that were NOT really directly related with Theosophy. But in the minds of people, such endeavors became connected. And sometimes, Besant and Olcutt (and Leadbeater and others) linked these ideas themselves (to get what they wanted).
For example, Christian missoinaries TODAY do many things to assist education, nutrition and medical needs in many poverty-stricken areas. The religious apsect gets connected to other genuine desires to help others. There is a Christian donation center in town where I live, and they send boxes of clothes to Africa every week. Of course, they try to convert too. It is all a matter of balance.
Generally, nothing is just "one thing". Things overlap and get interconnected. Steiner's interests in farming and architecture were separate, but related to his spiritual pursuits, and he was a very intelligent fellow who was brought up along a German idealist tradition.
I would add Student of Trinity that MANY people truly want to "help Mankind". But, I never base any judgment on "intentions". To me that is an indicator of absolutely nothing. In his own deranged way Hitler wanted to usher in a great "new world" and did truly aim to "help people". The Christian missionaries would often resort to all sorts of deceptions to usher in their great new world. The psychiatrist who lunged the ice pick into the frontal lobes of a mental patient truly felt that he was "helping". One needs to look past the intentions. There is a very good reason why this saying exists:
The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions
Many people now, and all throughout history, have truly had wonderful intentions to "help mankind", but their actually behaviors and the effects they create on real people in the real world are often far less lofty as compared to their stated "ideals". That was certainly the case with the Inquisition's treatment of disbelievers and heretics, just as it is for Scientology today.