A very well written post and to the point. It does indeed take a while to settle in here. I'm two years now on @Actifit and enjoying every single post of it! Newbies just need to choose a community, get involved and give it a chance, the potential of this Hive blogging platform is huge!
That is the key point to note. Hive is not a short term project and we're still at the very beginning. There's no much development all the time that you can't see that on other chains.
As about communities, there are plenty and anyone can create and crow a niche community, that can be incubated by OCD, which mean support for good content. Possibilities are endless.