Are you still not playing any tournaments? Those are the best places to earn SPS, even better than ranked. If I need to prioritize 25 battles a day, I would play in 2 tournaments and have an automated service handle ranked for me.
I also think there is too much upside in flipping GF multiples from the loot chests that I will accept the extra energy, merits, and potions to try and spike those big GF and jackpot draws. I typically max out the first batch of all 3 loot chests... and since I've maxed all common and rare rewards, I've moved towards buying as many GF epic draws as possible as there as just so many impact epics in rebellion.
I stopped playing tournaments months ago as I was not enjoying the grind with the ranked play as well. I refuse to share my SPS earnings with my staked SPS with bot services so I only play manual. Still thinking about those loot chests!
I totally understand the feeling about not wanting to share the staked SPS, but I only have so much time in my day to play Splinterlands and I feel like tournaments are a better use of my time. Not just for the SPS to be earned, but for the variety of leagues (silver/gold/max) and formats (modern/wild/2sets) to keep things fresh. If I need to share 15% of my ranked earnings when I don't have the time to play my 24 ranked battles so be it.