It used to be free to post comment and whatever else but because there is tokens/money involved abusers ruined that by posting excessive spam and comment farming just to cash it out immediately, it affected the chain's performance and ruined that for everyone else starting out. Trust me it was pretty bad so they had to implement the rc system to limit the abuse. There has been a lot of learn as you go for everyone involved. I see you didn't do your introduction post to the community and that is normally how new users get enough rc to post a little more or get a delegation. They are working on a rc pool delegation of some type in the near future to mitigate that.
There was also a reward curve update to counteract that excessive spamming and made it hard for us medium holders to reward good comments on the chain as smaller votes are currently worth less rather than pooled with other votes so comment farming and spam didn't thrive, but it had repercussions on newer users/content consumers unable to earn from commenting alone but that will be reverted back on the upcoming HF25, it's being tested now in the background before release.
Keep in mind, on a technicality this place just celebrated it's first birthday just a few weeks ago, it isn't even built yet. Unfortunately if you are not here to build then you are at the mercy of waiting for features like the rest of us. The old chain was under a corporation so there was no choice in development and features or the speed of any of this went, that held back a lot of things. Since we gained our independence in the last year, things have been moving a bit faster and more freely, just be patient ,this place is a work in progress. You fix one problem and it creates another and it can seem like a game of whack-a-mole trying to tweak things just right.
I don't use 3 speak so I don't know or keep up with what goes on there.
"I prefer to consume it rather then be part of that 'worker bee' group" - That is your choice. If you don't want to do long form content than have you tried DBuzz?
I'm not missing any point. I know what this place is or isn't, I was here when it was the old chain for almost 4 years now. These guys don't use mainstream social media and hate it so they are a bit delusional on what the mainstream user want and refuse to understand it and that affects their perception of this place. I get it... I am a mainstream user. Their loss and why they are banging their head against the wall trying to gain and retain users here and unable to see the problem. They have their vision and that's the only one that matters to them, in the end...their loss since they have more at stake than the rest of us (investment/token value) and yes it does limit this place but it doesn't make it un-usable. Maybe you should pay less attention to their echo chamber if it bothers you that much and just do your thing like the rest of us.
The advantage of web 3.0, they can't remove you from society and delete your account for what you post like they do on FB and twitter and instead of a central entity earning on engagement and owning the platform or selling your data. It is every user with their stake instead. The point you are missing is stake=voice , earned or bought. You seem to want specific demands right now but not willing to put in any work or gain the respect of the community.
A user doesn't have to leave their other platform just because they did but can enhance their overall social media experiences by bringing their content created here to friends. For example, I'm into photography and travel and that's what I mainly write about and bring it to my friends on my mainstream media, anyone can easily use both rather than pick one or the other, it's all what you make of it in the end. They don't want a billion mainstream users here it creates too much chaos, mostly content creators at least for now. This place cannot handle that many users why the RC implementation in the first place.