You are right, @cryptostudent! This platform is saturated with useless stuff, trolls and haters and even the most innocent, but really good blog (like my gardening blogs) will not get any reward in the beginning unless you have a "friend" here.
You have to "work your way up" - forever.
I personally think that all this Steemit platform is about, is pushing up Alexa ratings with every post, comment, reply, vote, read and make the cryptocurrency Steem mainstream knowledge. Good thinking on behalf of the owners.
This is not a platform where you can make money with good or bad content.
Actually, I was looking for a "delete my account" button, but I can't find it. So if I leave now, all my steem, steem dollars and steem power is gone.
I will keep looking.