I wear socks.

As to feeling frustrated / under appreciated. I get it. I had quick look through your post history and you seem (correct me if i'm wrong) to have posted a lot of content about celebrities/models/beauty etc.
My advice and this is purely specualation is - I think something to be aware of is the current vs future audience of steemit. If you look at the posts that are doing well, they seem to be around

• crypto/tech,
• politics (Anachism/Voluntarism etc),
• Lifestyle(Travel) and
• Art (Photogaphy, Original artwork)

The audience is still fairly small. However, if steemit does become more popular and a wider audience it will allow for more niche content to be rewarded/discussed more. I'd try not to be too discouraged by this, but see it as an opportunity to build a reputation within that space whilst it's small.

In regard to buying steem to earn more. This is a complicated proposition and you will need to do some additional research and come to your own conclusions about whether investing in steem is a good decision for you.

However, what I can say is that having a lot of steem doesn't directly increase your post payout (unless you upvote yourself i guess - which would be a minimal return). However it does give you more influence on the site. holding your steem as Steem Power also earns you a portion of the new steem being created at the moment that is around (i believe) 312% whether this is increasing the value of your account or is diluting depends on the price/growth of steem as well. There is also a return mechanism for holding SBD.
What you should see an increase in (apart from SP/SBD interest) is your share of curation rewards which will go up based on your share of the 'pool' of votes for a post.

I know this all sounds a bit complicated but if you do a quick search (using the magnifying glass in the top right of the nav bar). You will see some great posts that outline how all of this works. Or perhaps consider checking out the Steem 101 book. A couple to get you started are:
Steemrollin's post
Arhag's similar post on the economics of steem

Good luck with your sock knocking