In your conclusion you hit a very pertinent point: serve your heart and your wallet.
I kind of treat steemit like a business in the sense that I am interested in trending metrics, I try to design content for appeal, vitality, and relatability, and I am always "networking" to expand an ever-growing list of personal contacts. That's my wallet.
In my heart: I simply enjoy making this content. I write about what is interesting to me, and if others like it that's great, if they don't that's also great. My history has shown that I will write for free to no audience simply because I need a place to put my thoughts. And when it comes to "networking", I actually am very curious about the people I reach out to, and they have taught me so many valuable and interesting things. Most of the people I follow here are people I know pretty well. We chat, joke around privately -- they are simply my friends who also happen to have a stake in this community.
I have made my contribution on another reply but just wanted to say thanks for the post, extremely valuable to those who like me (new as I am) have the interests of the platform, as well as of self, at heart. Sounds almost as though Steemit should split into two, those who think our way and those who see it purely as a potential cash cow. Or maybe we should just form a big subgroup with the motto: "Think not what Steemit can do for you, think what you can do for Steemit!" Following you, keep up the great contribution.
It's a hot topic right now, and one I intended to cover more in future.