As a fellow minnow, I understand exactly what you're saying. I've been posting, voting, and commenting for a week straight. I've spent several hours each day engaging on this site - and I have very little to show for it.
But I don't even worry so much about the rewards. I would just like my posts to be seen. I don't like that they get buried so quickly and ignored (even by my nearly 60 followers) simply because it appears that they won't get a good payout...because whales and their bots don't recognize the content as "quality." However, photos of coffee from the commons is apparently extremely valuable. How is an original creator supposed to earn here - and why would they remain as a creator if they can't, because of the bot-curation system?
As someone who like exposure for their content in a regimen to get better at wirting & what have you, I can second your notion. What we need more is feedback. Like those times seen as on facebook & youtube. That at least alleviates the problem that not everyone who reads your stuff leaves a comment.
Of course on way to increase the comments is to write more engaging posts, but currently it is hard to see, if your post isn't that cool, or that noone saw it for whatever reason.
One thing that steemit does for me, is making getting better at what I do into a game. Which is exactly what I needed for ages now. So thank you for providing it!