This was quite a heavy read @ats-david. Personally, I think sports, porn, gaming, and even the fake news and cannabis posts add value to the platform - not because of the content necessarily but because of the WIDE AUDIENCE.
We have this wonderful thing called FREE WILL which allows us to pick and choose, post, comment and curate whatever our hearts desire. I love the plethora of choices. It subliminally tells me I can be open with my content and share my subjective truths - whatever they may be.
I think it's fair to say the internet is big enough for everyone -- and so is Steemit. That's why I love it here - payouts or no.
And by the way - your sports posts do bring value. You put in an extraordinary amount of time to format them, be informative, and you are clear about the rules and payout structure. To my knowledge, there has been no complaint about you reneging on anything. Your reputation and integrity is intact.
And, because of the way your post is structured, it requires engagement. People need to post something to participate. And if memory serves me correctly, it's only recently been encouraged to COMMENT on posts to show engagement, so you've been ahead in that game too.
Yes - and this is what we should be encouraging, not telling people that their posts suck and that they probably shouldn't even post in the first place. That's exactly the wrong message to send and it's the wrong message if you're trying to "raise the quality of consciousness."
That's been my life story. It's awfully hard waiting around for everyone to catch up all the time.