Thanks for your thoughtful comment @crowbarkids. I know starting out can be frustrating in that you want to comment and upvote everyone and everything that's interesting to you - you want to contribute. And yes, your contribution is small but it's still a contribution. It's how Steemit grows.

I started Steemit in 2016. And I never once commented without upvoting. It's not that I was looking for big payouts it's just how I learned that each upvote made a difference in the over all payout for everyone. Once my voting power went down - and sometimes my vote was 0, I just waited until it went up again. I had a lot of help from dolphins and whales at that time and this is how and what I learned.

You likened up-voting to getting tips as a bartender. Up-voting isn't a tip though. It's part of the larger scope of Steemit rewards and investments. I found a really great post by @snbox - he's put together a toolbox of sorts with all kinds of interesting helps not just for new people but for everyone.

I get a lot of people on my posts who comment only sometimes and that's fine, I know their steem power is low at times.

But when I am investing in their blogs and it's never reciprocated, after a time I begin to see a trend - why? because I upvote comments on my blog. When I noticed a comment from one of these people on another blog saying she has started commenting more than posting because she was making more SBD from upvotes on her comments than from her own posts. I was shocked. It's not only mooching it's not helpful to herself. She needs to upvote others in order to increase her voting power.

We are here to build an investment and for the community. Otherwise we'd be on FB still, right?

I understand where you are coming from and appreciate your thoughts on the matter.

If you are interested in a further look at what up-votes are and how it all works I recommend this article by @sndbox. what is a Steemit Upvote?