What it boils down to is; how do we evolve steemit into a useful platform of interaction?
Spend some of your online time looking for and upvoting any that are sincerely trying to provide content REGARDLESS of whether you agree with their views.
Spend some of your online time looking for and resteeming any that are "in your wheelhouse" (that you are personally interested in and that you think those that follow you should be interested in).
Spend some of your online time looking for and downvote or flag any posts/replies that you think are just looking for a vote/follow/handout but provide little/no value in exchange or that you can tell haven't engaged with the actual content.
Upvote anyone that ever replies to your post (whether you agree with their views or not) and downvote/flag any if they are just doing it for a return upvote/follow.
Do not follow anyone without browsing their blog (comments and replies too) a little to see if they actually post anything of value TO YOU.
Do not encourage others to follow you for any other reason than that they are interested in what YOU have to say.
Reply to other's posts ONLY to honestly and SINCERELY encourage, provide PERTINENT feedback, constructive criticism and NEVER for the purpose of coercing their return upvote, follow, etc.
Thank you for the reply / advice, I for the most part do most of the things you mentioned - in one way or other. I make it a point to spend some of my time actually "curating" other posts - I have a wide range of interests so finding interesting material is not all that difficult (only hindered by the vast quantity of not so good stuff between me and it). I realised this more recently, and started upvoting the comments people make in my posts - you are 100% spot on that it matters, and makes a difference. Regarding your point about followers and following - when I started, I made a serious effort to acquire as many followers, and follow as many people as possible. My hope was to have a large group of people, that I could market and promote my posts directly to them (where as they were already somewhat familiar with me by going through the process). Unfortunately there is really no efficient (efficient being the key word) mechanism to direct market to individuals or subgroups contained within my list of followers - I didn't know it at the time but now I do. There lies (in my opinion) one of the fundamental flaws of the platform - someone just starting (a minnow) has no real means of getting noticed, other than luck or to "buy your way in".
I could go on, but I'll leave it with "now I know"... Thanks again...