Yeah, it certainly isn't for everyone. When it comes to content and content discovery, I find it's much easier to look for those interesting people, rather than interesting posts. Usually the interesting people will deliver interesting content. They're still hard to find though when mixed in with all that spam on Steemit. This tribe helps organize things a bit. I've met most of the interesting types through my blog, when they come and visit my posts.

stopped being fun because a lot of us get stuck on a certain "level" regardless of the quality of posts.

There once was a ladder one could climb. They'd earn, and then every now again someone would notice something special and it would make it up to the trending page organically. Then the author would gain certain benefits like more money and a more followers, organically, because they were in the spotlight. Then, after a few days, the party was over but the author still had a chance to do it all again.

The moment they started selling votes, that all went away, a long with thousands of people. I promise you, I tried to explain that to people, for years. A lot of those vote seller types would tell me I'm just whining. The one purchasing votes and pushing the talent aside had no sense of community either. I tried to tell them as well. That was my biggest waste of time here. They just kept selling votes and buying votes, being blind to the chaos it was causing all around them, and now look. Steemit is a disaster and many, like you, have left, and see no reason to come back.

When it comes to making money here, there's a business side to things many miss, but I don't want to bore you to death with a long response.