I actually ended up here in a roundabout sort of way at the recommendation of someone else, and was slightly surprised to notice that you had linked to one of my own posts about the same issue... so yes, I did read your entire post... and I think we're on the same page in agreeing that Steemit/Steem is feeling a bit sickly at the moment. However, there seems to already be a groundswell building in the community (mostly among the "dolphin" layer of users to both re-educate and otherwise flag obvious spam and copy-pasta.

I look at this through two sets of eyes... in addition this (my original) account I also manage a far "younger" (about 50 days) old account for my wife's and my independent art gallery... as it is very much a "niche" account, I am building it with a completely different set of (art focused) content, and trying to build a following among a different (and very specific) set of users. My point being, I get to see the site through the eyes of this "junior dolphin" sized account and a "minnow" account, simultaneously.

What I have noticed most since HF19 is that many people have gotten stingy with their upvotes, especially on comments. I curate quite a bit, and I upvote loads of comments... other people not so much; I check steemd.com regularly to keep up wth my voting power... try not to finish the day with it any higher than 85%, as that would mean I'd start "burning" votes before morning.

Anyway, kudos to you for your initiatives... ANY effort towards building community and encouraging engagement is good; anything to highlight people and push bots into the background is good.