I also manually upvote and I can tell you there is no shortage of quality posts on steemit. So I look at it from the point of view that when steemit/sister apps succeed we all do. I look to upvote those people who not only create quality ... like I said ... there is no shortage of these, but also those people who are engaging beyond post writing on the platform.

If I upvote a post and leave a quality comment on the post, do you return the action? (General you and you specifially ;) Do I see you in the comments sections of others? Do you run contests or curate a posting tag? Are you building steem with me or are you dropping a post, all be it a quality one, and then just waiting for upvotes and not bothering to even comment on the comment I left you. I quickly tire of these kinds folks and move onto the builders, those engaged with building the steem ecosystem.

I think people over-estimate the whole importance of the "quality post' thing. We need more people engaging. If someone drops say just a meme (I have never done this) but then dozens of people visit the post and drop their owns memes and there is considerable traffic on the page, they are building steem way more than someone that wrote the next volume of shakespeare and no one read it. But they botted the crap of out it and it is worth a million.

I'd say find what you love(there's your quality control) and build your community around it.