I feel very similarly to you - I am a professional writer and know a LOT of people in the writing community - especially horror and science fiction. A lot of them are professional editors, teachers, and freelance writers who would love to make some extra cash. But most of them are not that tech-savvy and trying to plunge into steemit without any prior knowledge of crypto would frankly, be a confusing mess of a nightmare.
I'm lucky in that I've done research on cryptocurrency in the past year and already knew how it worked. But things like wallets, block-chains, encryption, exchanges, and the differences between currencies takes time to figure out and isn't immediately obvious. I can't in good conscience recommend the platform to friends because of it.
I think that's why we get the glut of crypto-related posts and there seems to be a lack of quality, professional writers. For the amount of money you get, it's just too much of a hassle for most people to do the research.
I've done the "shilling" posts, but they don't really bother me unless that's all I see in a person's feed. I admit they provide little value to anyone who isn't already a fan of the author.
My Mother USB a professional writer am deathly I have been trying to get her on here, but I worry that her post s will fall flat and she'all be out. I told her to get on here for a little while, poke around, comment, see what she likes, before putting be a LOT of time into creating content that might not get many views...