This place has had what, 5 years now? All I can think of since gaining that freedom is that we funded a rally car and an overpriced documentary nobody saw.
I don't feel much sense of community on here, it feels more like there's specific friend groups and if you're not part of it, you're unlikely to go far. Which is why new accounts pop up, either immediately are targeted for not following weird rules like sourcing every image.
And then there are rules for the regular poster that don't really apply to those groups. The recent KE thing is a big one. So many curators making hundreds per month but hold like 1k HP, but they're never put under the spotlight. This place does feel like it's slowly strangling itself to death. It feels more legacy than legacy socials at this point which are offering advertising revenue to people now. Without a 7 day window.
It was noted recently that we have less than 5k actual frequent posters on here. Everything's far too thin and there's no real incentive to stick around if you're new. To build any account from curation is going to take years, and to post as a new account is to just get ignored or be under the radar, all for a measly few dollars.
But as you said, those thriving on the DHF are fine. The regular writer is fine. They aren't creators like the ones that appear on socials.