@dber i totally agree with you about the lack of a good app. Infact i mentioned this in one of comments earlier.
I believe the issue with the platform is that cover photos of articles and reputation score is a means to judge a post. Most of the time even manual voters do not read the post. In such a narrow scenario the content suffers. Desperate means are used to attract upvote via cover photos. Yesterday i end up reading a comment where someone said reputation score is how even without reading the article they vote.

The content is also dominated by memes, blockchain, photography. In fashion tag pictures of models are posted. Tags like history philosophy economics are so away from popularity.

I believe once heed is paid to these issues the platform will grow. Minnows need validation for good content.