Well your post hit home right between my eyeballs and dead center into my brain... spot on imo... I wrote what follows below months ago but have backed away a few weeks later...and still not wanting to jump back in...your post amplified many points..Good luck and hopefully you will return (you should)!

^{I was lucky 44 days ago when I finally jumped after looking at Steemit from the cheap seats and whether or not I should. I can say as a plankton, all you said is so true. @blank a good intelligent poster from Thailand (Brit x-pat) was the first to pass on some advice and he followed (I think out of pity). The early days were just engage others blogs, avoid being trite and be yourself but if you had nothing to add..don't and vote + even its worth so little if you felt moved by the post's content. The author takes note and appreciates it. It is common decency/good manners. Then you evolve meet new people - purely by happenstance. @blank is another I am quite fond of. Because of him I read something by @blank .. that led to something I could not have imagined would have occurred in any other SM medium. Great guy! Separate the wheat and caff and they are some extraordinary people/content on Steemit. Yes I noticed some gambits, whining and the ever-rising amount of new accounts inbound, my bandwidth is throttled to nothing in prime-time of late and such - BUT I GET IT. I hope to earn my place here not by silliness or fraud but by consistent engagement and I don't expect anything for nothing... only for value as viewed by others.}