You said it all.

Beside hypocritical circle-jerks and handful of envious users, I managed to find only a few 'normal,' real people here.

I believe most of us don't mind following rules if there's any but it should be equal for everyone. But that doesn't apply with steem/steemit.
Every big whale(ninja-miners as you said to be precise) has made their own rules to categorize spam post/ shit post / reward-pool raper bla bla...and acts like they really care for the steem and the ecosystem, but the reality is just opposite.

And here's the fun part, those rules have no effect to themselves and their co's, who are the real reward pool rapers in big amounts $$$ but applies for the small fishes who barely make a $1 from their post. Whatever they do is okay/good but you are considered as trash if you do the same this as they do. Typical hypocrites. Everyone is complaining about everyone else but nobody dares to say a single word about those big fishes.

I don't know at what price you bought your steem but I can feel it and really feel sorry for you. I knew a few YouTuber who invested all of their earning while steem was around its ATH believing all those shillers and their fake promises.

Anyway happy birthday to you.