Ones of the truest things is that $$$ change everything. The other day I saw someone complaining that you can't be social on Steemit without lots of steempower. No one was challenging him until I said, that's nonsense unless you are referring to the RC issue and even that can easily be gotten round via small delegations. Then they admitted that RCS weren't an issue for them. So it seems like it was just an unfounded gripe
Basass, the new tab can be a depressing place indeed but I still have a trawl now and then
The community is very guarded about the 'pool', I know you are well aware of this.
I have been looking more, what I see is mostly grim as you say. Anything good is likely to have been picked up on before I see it.
Talk about scrapping around for the good stuff. Maybe creative writing is something inherited from our ancestors and cant be learned.