I don't think we have got together since you joined Steemit and there is so much I could tell you about it. Having written this tells me you have not given up on it, more want some points of view and explanations.
The chops.support steemhunt article that you staunchly refused to give your $0.02 too was simply to get the account over (40), and for no other reason for the purposes of the byteball giveway.
Its not like I do these everyday and I can assure you that your followers would not have thought badly and would not have even noticed that you voted up such a 'terrible' article. The have better things to do with their lives.
There is an awful lot of things that you don't know about on Steemit that I could introduce you too, but the bandwidth of this message is insufficient to get it across.
I don't follow any whales and don't vote any up, though I follow a couple of Orca's who have shown me some attention.
It is true that there are 'circles' but isn't it like that in every aspect of our lives? You talk to the same people at work every day, you have the same circle on Facebook too?
There are certain users on Steemit that I do vote up every article, its true but with good reason and that is trust. All my curation is manual, I dont use autovotes except for the curation groups which gains me auto-bonusus, something else you are unaware of.
The ROI here is incredible if you use your SP correctly. As I said.. we need to talk. Give me a shout.
All that is far to complex a game for me mate. I just want to go to a site to find good quality content and vote on it if it is good. Simple as that.