well, from 1 year ago about when your account was worth a lot making 5-10 a day steem was probably up towards 3 or 4 bucks per... so thats 1/3 or 1/4 of the price right there. and you are right, i haven't been on steem a lot but yes, it is a lot different. A lot of the whales now just delegate to earn passive income, you rarely get a whales vote because you have to pay for it if you want it, noon is actually in control of the account. They are trying to do some stuff to fix it and make users more interactive and not just have bots. SMTs are a new thing that should be coming out next year that could fix a lot of that. i would read into it if i was you but are you planning on sticking around? i would... work your account up as high as you can before the bull run!