I have bought and powered up more Steem in the past few months than I did prior to this. I like the direction that we are headed.
As for what I am doing in terms of posting and avoiding downvotes, I am posting pretty much the same as I always have been. I know the downvotes will come every now and then, but that is just part of the game here. Most of the time the downvotes are coming from troll accounts with no backing to them so I just shrug them off. I just focus on what I can control, and that is the content that I am posting and the content that I am curating. Once you realize that you can't control what others do on this platform it makes this a much better experience. I post what I want and I reward the content that I appreciate.