I think photography does definitely have value... I'm sorry to hear you had a negative experience with one of Hive's communities. Sometimes there are unwritten rules people decide on and hold everyone else to, which is unfortunate.
"Low effort" can mean different things; six different exposures of the same image in six posts might be considered "low effort,"but all six in one post might not... you just have to be patient and experiment your way there!
Yeah, thanks for the encouragement!