I think the time I've put in engaging with others has definitely paid off and glad it is paying off for you as well.
Isn't Hive awesome in the variety of content you can read about. I know I was more interested in reading about content about investing and crypto and didn't read any stories.
There is a lot of good content on Hive, I just wish people could get beyond the term 'quality' it is so subjective. If a person likes something, it is quality to them. I find lots of new users via re-blogs, but most often because I see a comment someone made and I get curious about their account. So engagement does lead to discovery of new people/content.