I'm so glad that you are addressing this issue in a nicely balanced way @adhunter. It's good to hear the arguments put rationally.

I have been here 3 months today and have been through many ups and downs, primarily caused by the imbalance of rewards here.

When I was new I read about the "bad" whales and then came the flagging wars. For a while I was upset about it but then I realised that these issues were so far out of my league it wasn't worth getting upset about.

Then I realised the important of SP but it wasn't until I thought about buying some that I saw just how hard it was. I decided one day that I would buy myself 500 SP after much agonising because I wanted to play the game and earn it. Believing the message of those that came before that it would all be different in 6 months.

The came two more disappointments. I discovered that buying 500 SP was also way out of my league and, even if I could, it wouldn't really make that much of a difference to the size of my vote.

So I soldiered on. Next issue was seeing those who had started about the same time surging ahead by buying Steem, buying delegation and/or spending $100s on bots. All the while working far less than I am.

I like that you acknowledge that it's harder now than it was "back in the day" but I find I don't want to think too hard about it or else I will get dejected again.

My saving grace has been commenting, enjoying conversations and building relationships as a result. If I look at the financial stuff I end up despondent.

I am fortunate to have won a 75 SP delegation (plus and extra 25 SP) from @abh2345 and I am very grateful for that. I just feels better to be able to upvote more good content. The upvotes of still small, less than 1 cent often, but at least I can make more of them without deleting my VP. In the early days I was usually at 25%.

So that's a short cut version of where I have been and where I am now. How long I will keep on keeping on remains to be seen but it is an interesting journey. 😊