Great post, and I appreciate the frustration as well. Nothing sucks more than spending a lot of time writing a great post, thinking it's going to do well, only to see languishing in the pennies an hour later, while some simple meme or junky scrap of poetry garners $100 or more.
Great content doesn't cut it anymore when it has to stand above the ocean of garbage, and it seems luck and timing and who you know plays a very large, very unbalanced role in getting good content seen.
I couldn't agree more! Thank you so much for your input. It really is frustrating at times. I know me whining about it won't make a big difference either though, as hardly anyone notices my posts anymore, but hey, can't always keep quiet :-)