I really like what you said here @techslut:

Remember - replied are upvoted and rewarded similarly to posts, so investing in a GOOD comment on a post by someone with 3,000 followers will get more eyes on your profile than a post you publish to your little following.

I've been experimenting with approaching comments as though they are my own, legitimate posts. By this I mean: adding as much value as possible and really diving into what the author is presenting.

This not only adds a ton of value to the initial post, but as you said, it exposes you to the entire thread that is also commenting. Those people who are leaving comments are likely Steemians who comment and engage with posts regularly - thus you'll be attracting the type of individuals you want on your own channel.

I wrote about this exact thing in my post yesterday (see my fifth point if you're interested in checking it out). I'm pretty new here but I've already thrown down 1,500 posts and from that, have a good idea of what's working thus far.

And I believe you're very much on point here @techslut. Thank you for sharing and inspiring as usual!