The vast majority of people using QBSE are indeed 'small - very small' self-employed and 1099-workers. They are the Uber drivers, and delivery guys bringing you your pizza. They are the contract-clean-up guy at a construction site, and the handyman you got as a referral from Lowes.
Intuit
QuickBooks SE
They are the people who previously wrote their mileage on a 'Big Chief tablet with a number 2 pencil', kept all their expense tickets in one shoebox, and if they bought a '$79.00 tool' it was expensed (which it should be).
But don't think that you can write-off QBSE because it is growing in leaps and bounds having gone from 0 to nearly 700,000 users in just over 18 months, even outgrowing regular QBO.
Some will argue that you can't track fixed assets or produce a balance sheet with QBSE. Both are true, but these people really aren't at that level of sophistication yet.
The vast majority have one fixed asset, their vehicle, and it is going to get tracked as part of their year-end tax filing. That's an easy enough adjustment to make when the time comes. They don't need a Balance Sheet all year long, and let's face it, they are not required to have one by the IRS. They are just Schedule C.
These are people at the stage where they are excited about the fact that they are even tracking these things in an App. Heck, until QBSE came along, both their grocery receipts and supply purchases were going into the same shoebox for some tax-guy to figure out at year end. QBSE is at least helping them to keep those things segregated.
Intuit
QBSE SE-taxes
Last year (2016) while riding in a peddle-cab between QuickBooks Connect and my hotel I actually set-up the driver on QBSE. At the time I was telling him about the conference and he asked "I guess I need to start thinking about this tax stuff. I've been doing these odd jobs all year." When I told him that the App could help him figure his quarterly SE tax estimates he was thrilled. They may not be perfect but they are better than paying no quarterly tax, right?
QBSE may not be a complete solution, but isn't any tracking better than none?
QBSE users are also the kind of people, for the most part, who will call you when they need you...but only if you are willing to work with them. A lot of accountants and ProAdvisors say, "I'm not interested in QBSE users. They can't afford me."
You can count on one thing. Someone out there will want their business when the time comes. It may be that new start-up ProAdvisor on the 'other side of the world', or the store-front tax-guy in the mall around the corner from your office, but one of them will be more than happy to be that someone the pizza delivery guy, who just brought your 'double pepperoni', works with.
PS - Tor those ProAdvisors hoping someday their QBSE clients will need to migrate to 'full blown QBO', be advised: I have it from a reliable source that there will be a conversion tool to take QBSE users to QBO. I tend to think that it may be just in time for the this coming tax season.