Time, effort and community creation is what I preach people's ears of with. Thanks for the the link to this market analysis of how Steemit can grow in time. I think with the correct implementation of (hopefully soon to be) Steemit's Community features, it will be easier to find sub-tags.

In my opinion engaging similar minded people is the best way to grow and have meaningful discourse about one's content on Steemit. It leads to friendship's, which has its own pitfalls as those you describe, but I think it also leads to people not giving up, because they feel too alone. Besides, networking with someone like-minded usually leads to networking with even more people - in the end organically giving everyone who participates in community creation a larger network on Steemit.

There is so much content being written every minute on Steemit, that being found randomly is a tough business.

Also thank you for mentioning Looking For Niche! I hope in time, it can grow to be a big community-hub, where everyone can find similar people in their favorite niches.