Thanks for the thoughtful overview, @playfulfoodie!
I've managed to find a few artists to follow and a few friends from my Youtube circles came to the platform too. So I might hang around, look for more of those artistic gems, and find ways to filter out the shameless vanity posts.
Do you happen to know how to set up more obvious Notifications when a specific person we follow posts something? I find myself pressing Refresh Page a lot.
Ooh I wish I could help you there! Someone told me about this site or app a while ago which would notify you for specific users, but I completely forgot the name of it. Maybe you could check out the App Center to see if there's anything useful there!
You can open the App Center by clicking the three lines at the top right of the site, next to your user icon. Then go to Steemit App Center.