Very thorough analysis of the system, @scottsantens. I too am active nearly a month and a member for almost a year. The true value is hard to perceive at first glance because there are so many features that are not completely intuitive yet.

I agree with your comment about a sub-reddit feature, that would help to categorize posts by interest a bit better. Also, would suggest removing or re-designing the trending page to show minnows/dolphins as well as whales. Like you said, there are some posts that are valuable, but get overlooked.

Great insights, thanks for sharing.