Interesting perspective! Many valid points. I also noticed that it is really hard for a newbie to actually get noticed. Some of my crappier posts get more votes, and some of the stuff I'm actually proud of barely earns a few cents. I don't get it...I guess it's all about which influential steemer or whale decides to give me a chance in the right moment.

I also got flagged once for no apparent reason by somebody (I asked a question about issues with dTube). Scary that someone can just decide to make your post disappear because they didn't like it.

I didn't even know that it was frowned upon to upvote your own posts. I always do it (the box is ticked on automatically, and I don't even pay attention to it). Could that be the reason why some posts do worse?

Finally, it is indeed discouraging to see posts that are clearly total crap earn hundreds of $! How are they doing this? If there is a secret to success (besides all the other recommendations I'm already following) please share =)