I agree. I joined over two years ago now and for a month or two was on often and posted several stories. My friends told me it was mostly my mistake for how i formatted the stories, written and published with a few readers in mind, forgetting the way the rewards work, and not accounting for peoples short attention spans (i was told my stories should have been broken into bits to garner attention and more time to be upvoted which i see now is true). While i did receive some positive feedback and well wishings, for the time i put into creating the original content, the rewards were exactly what you said, underwhelming. Seems like with the social media driven generation and those of us adapting, pictures and click bait like headlines are 'tricks of the trade'. While i too have hope that steemit grows and eventually cuts out its own space, seems the rewards go to those with large followings from other platforms, and those with bots set in place to reap the benefits of curation. Such is life.