I felt this post was a little long but very valuable. You are discussing issues that many people have pondered and experienced.
As you say its hard to have a truly accurate conclusion but all the points you made are valid factors in the over all equation.
Ulitmatly my main point would be your closing point of which is that even if we don't make much we are making INFINITLY more than we would position gone FascistBook, Twatter or some blog page. In fact a lot of people PAY for their blog page and make NOTHING ahaha.
So the main reason people are getting frustrated is because they see people making THOUSANDS of dollars a post and think "I can write that good or even better! I am going to make BIG bucks!" Then when you make cents its a major let down!
So first off the ONLY people making BIG bucks are people with big followings in a particular area of life that is popular here on Steemit.
Everyone else is going to have to do what you are doing and based on your circumstances, as you said you are doing well. You are building followers, your reputation is increasing and you are adapting to the Steemit Platform.
If you keep up with the pace you are on you will be making hundreds a post regularly and it will be WORTH IT!
SO all in al if you want to be successful her in Steemit its going to take some WORK!
Steem ON Brother~*~