The appreciation of a comment left is often more valuable to a user on the edge of giving up and I see it as strong motivation, much more than a vote really. In fact, I hate it when people thank me for my vote and cite it as a reason they now have greater motivation; they have totally missed the point. Many times a user has been so thankful for my comment on their post - I feel it's been genuine most of the time and sometimes I can tell it's done to curry favour with me because I have a bit of stake...the truth comes put when I never hear from them again.
It's sad that people don't see the opening of me commenting on their posts as an opportunity to continue to build a relationships; no different to people thinking they're gaining from posting on my #weekend-engagement topics each week for a vote then me not hearing another thing from them all week. If only they knew they would "earn" so much more than my single vote if they took the time to comment to me on my posts all week.
I totally agree with you on this one. Even though I'm voting manually, I do sometimes rush to cast my votes to some posts because I don't want my Hive Power to reach 100%.
Comments show that someone has ready your content.
Some people just aren't here for building 'relationships' and engaging, but for the earnings. I've also seen a lot of people that only post and cash.
That is why I think rewarding comments is important. It shows appreciation towards the commenters.
I'm moving away from voting posts by people I don't know well and towards bigger votes on comments left for me or others. (The right comments of course). I also check wallets and rarely support extractors. I'm disinclined to buy them dinner, especially when their posts and comments are shite or AI and other such things.