I'm almost certain that if this place survives, over time it'll slowly balance out and improve
I'm just not sure what to do in the meantime. I either vote myself up aggressively to justify working really hard on the content, and even then it's hard to make more than just renting it out, or I just rent it out and sit back like a lot of others have done, many of whom far larger stakeholders than me. Either way the rewards are leaving the pool, a lot of it is either going back to myself, or to the average vote buyer whose quality of work is questionable, not implying yourself.
You can see how content creators who invested in Steem face this dilemma. They basically stand to make about as much doing absolutely nothing while avoiding all the controversy of self voting etc.
I can't afford to pass up on the level of rewards I can get from doing absolutely nothing and renting it out. So is that what I should do?
The rewards will be leaving the pool either way, to traf or to the buyers is basically what everyone gets to decide
Yeah it's tough. I don't know what you should do. Either way you are a target at the moment cos your vote is worth a lot so you are being watched. Certain people will come at you for renting out your vote but they will also come at your self voting. It's a sucky situation.