I will point out that your quotes and not things I actually said.
I hope you read some of the other comments as you will see that money is not the primary driver for many. Of course it can attract people, but then they may find a fun community. On Mastodon or Identica you might have already have known a lot of people there from being active in the open source world. Hive/Steem has had less of those people so far.
Compared with many you are not actually that active here and what you do on Discord will be invisible to most.
Hive is neither a ponzi nor a pyramid. Those rely on people at the bottom paying in for those at the top to get paid. Hive generates the funds anyway. Nobody has to buy $HIVE if they don't want to, but if they do then it may help the price. There have to be reasons to build your stake that way and I can think of a few. It does get noticed if you make that sort of commitment, but it's still optional.
If you haven't looked at Splinterlands your assumptions may be wrong. You do not lose money as such there, but buying cards or packs can be considered a gamble.
I can't say that you are really 'doing Hive wrong', but maybe you are just not reaching the right people. I know others who are new here and post once a week to get big votes. That can be because they got involved with an active community.
I definitely don't want you to leave, but we each have to make the best use of our valuable time.
!BEER
That's not strictly true. If lots of Minnows start buying Hive like they are constantly being encouraged to when the price is low, that then inflates the value. It's simple economics that those with a bigger stake stand to gain more than those minnows with nickel-and-dime investments. That, in turn, very much makes it look like a Pyramid scheme. Desperate people see accounts gaining high rewards for very little effort, and so, therefore, they start buying Hive because their rewards are so small, and they, too, want to be on the next tier. Hell, it's one of the reasons I keep bitching about my Rep because I'm convinced one needs to be in the 70s' to start seeing the big bucks. 🤣
I seem to remember (Not necessarily by you) being told that the way to make connections was to be active on Discord?
If only I could bank all these different bits of advice, my HP would be through the roof. 🤣🤣🤣
!LUV
@steevc, @dickturpin(1/1) sent you LUV.
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Whatever. I'm not going to say anything that changes you mind.