This is great! It's like you read my mind, buddy! I had thought of writing something similar, but since you mentioned all of these great points so eloquently, I would just link to this post if I ever come around to posting it. I strongly believe in all of the same things, man. It's such an understated fact.

People, especially on Steemit, often feel like they can just take a shortcut and market their work without building a solid infrastructure to support it. They don't realize that if they take the time to interact on other people's posts, they could draw in more readers to their own.

If you always helped them, and they never helped you, I'd wager you wouldn't stay friends for very long.

This is the very same philosophy I operate with. That's why I what I do is I comment two to three times on people's post. If they don't comment on any of mine during that span, I just cut ties and stop wasting time trying to build a one-sided support system.