I've lamented the 'quality content doesn't get noticed' thing off and on for a while now. Writing a quality story takes a lot of time, but the rewards are random and typically minimal.

I could say a person should just be writing for the love of writing, and the dollars (pennies?) are just a bonus, but that's not practical or realistic. We all want to be recognized, and be paid, especially compared to what we see others getting.

It's really only a few people that are winning with organic upvotes; but even they (and everyone else) are getting most of their votes as part of someone else's auto upvote or curation trail.

Nobody's really reading the content. There's too much content already on steemit, but we're forced to just keeping pumping out more so the witnesses stay in business.

It's a mad system.