Hello i understand your fustrations...

Some things I've noticed people don't mention too often that could have helped me early on in my Steemit adventures are:

1. https://Steemworld.org/@tymaths
   -a (nearly) complete interactive page that gives you a better overall experience and overview of what is really happening on your steem page.
   -steemstats is not that good
   -steemviz is a good pending payout site(does not include curation but has total pending payout including comment payouts)

2. Steemengine.net

• steemengine the followers gained is unreal. I gained 100 just in the past two days. If you want you can use my referal link not required though...
  https://steemengine.net/join?r=633

3)Steemit School
-with @dobartim and @flysky.
https://discord.gg/q9VEn5n is their discord.
They have a live voice channel there too.
Be sure to go to the introduction section of the discord channel and introduce yourself on their discord by following this order
i. Name
ii. Nationality
iii. Birth date
iv. Specialty
v. Who invited you on here. (dynamicgreentk)
vi. Steemit account link

A very informative and supportive group of people for minnows. Its fairly new but it provides great basic support and tips there not to mention lots of contests and giveaways and love!

https://steemit.com/steemitschool/@dobartim/how-do-i-make-the-first-steps-and-great-success-on-steemit-welcome-to-our-steemit-school

1. if your going to buy upvotes for post promotion try and follow grumpy cat and his rules...
   -https://steemit.com/grumpycat/@mikel2la1/grumpy-cat-making-a-difference

2. check out Kenny and his introduceyourself post tips it is extremely helpful and informative!

https://steemit.com/steemit/@kennyskitchen/2k8asu0f

These are some uncommon things I wish I was made aware of early on when I first joined! I wish you the best and much success here helping us all grow this amazing platform!