Well, I'm glad you're not too down about it. I gave you a shoutout in a recent post, so I can hope some folks stop by and interact with you because of it... not that anyone much reads my posts either.

I keep trying to upvote your comment, above, but for some reason I keep getting an alert... whoop, nope, there we go. It worked this time. (after 4+ attempts)

I think we have very different takes on what people SHOULD do. As you say, it boils down to expectations. I seek you out from time to time. I comment on your posts when I come across them in my feed. I have no rule about commenting on your posts. I kind of feel like, if I didn't seek you out, you'd never come by my page, so while you reciprocate attention, you don't seek me out. It's a different kind of feeling underappreciated than you have, but it's similar. It's hard to build a friendship when we both have such different ideas of what it should be like, but we'll persevere, eh?

But let's talk about those feelings of resentment we can feel about one-way support. I think we both will be better off if we can abandon those feelings regardless of our own behavior. Let us all learn to be fans of those we are fans of and expect nothing in return. We're fans of people because of their work, and it's NICE if they're fans of our work, but that's not WHY we're fans of they're work. My example is @suesa. I just like her writing. But I don't really expect her to like my writing or even read it. I just like hers. I feel better about that because, if I'm not seeking attention, I can just be a fan. Steemit mixes social media and fandom in a way that I'm ambivalent about. On the one hand, yes, all social media connects creators with fans. On the other hand, Steemit in particular is a community of 90% content creators. That's freakin' tough. We all need an audience, but we're only an audience of each other. Weird. Also, popularity is almost directly tied to profitability. That also makes for some unusuals for otherwise normal social interactions.

And yes, your contest did feel much harder to me than my contest feels to me, but I guess that is, indeed, because of our particular skill sets, or perhaps because of our expectations of what others' expectations of us are (I.E. I felt like I had to tell an interesting story that lent something useful to the conversation if I was going to tell a story at all.)

More thoughts about contests, not that you're ever going to try hosting a contest again:
Not that there's hundreds of entrants, but, since everyone wins my contest (i.e., an upvote), as long as they try, whether they make a good pun or not, maybe it feels like there's no risk, only reward. Whereas, since in your contest one had to tell the BEST story, so if and when one reads the other stories and thinks, "well, that's a better story than I'd tell," perhaps one wouldn't feel like they'd be contributing much to the discussion.

BTW, if it makes you feel any better, I have spent more time commenting on your posts over my history of steemit than I have on any other individual's account. I SUSPECT, though I don't know how much time you spend on each comment, that I have spent more time commenting in your threads than you have on mine. That's not blockchain measurable, but since there's a need on your end to be reassured that your attention is reciprocated, be assured that it is and has been.

I will add, that the way in which you've decided to do your steemit-ing means to me that you will never come to actually be a fan of my work. That nips at the back of my mind. That you will comment on my works according to your rules, but that we won't actually be able to talk about the work itself, because you're just following your rules. I dunno. Maybe not. Maybe you'll allow yourself to be excited by something that you really like or that you'll feel the need to express your criticism for something that you have a big problem with if you are so inspired, but it doesn't FEEL that way. Am I wrong?

I hope I wasn't too impolitic here. Just writing a lot of thoughts as I have them.

Oh, also, when I said "What do you mean by consistently commented and voted on the people you're following? You did several times on my stuff, but certainly not on everything. I'm not complaining, I don't expect that, but you didn't, for example, play in my contest, which I think is even simpler and less time consuming than yours, more than I played in yours."
I meant, "over the course of the contest" Because that's what I thought you meant... that you had sought out your followers once you started your contest, and interacted with them. I meant that I did your contest a couple times while it was running this past month, but until I did, I hadn't seen you in a while.