I totally vote manually and have explored many aspects of voting. After writing for many years, as a contributor here and there, I had thought with that background I would mostly write here on Steemit. It became more and more obvious that to do much of that I needed to "make friends" and get to know Steemians through common interests.
I have written a few short posts but I agree there are "tweeks" that could help the platform.
Having to time your vote in order to receive the best benefit is a "pain" as people are busy and using Steemit as social interaction and not their main job. ROI is noted as part of the Steem package when one joins and patience is a must as we work as a community to make adjustments for a more level playing field. It frustrates me that I cannot come up with immediate solutions. As the platform evolves I feel that they will appear in good time.
Yes I think it is a process of continuous evolution.