I had almost the same experience. Joined Steem a while ago, came back with Hive. The delegation I started with made me think there were no limits. It was expired and I hit that RC limit over and over. Found out I had to claim rewards manually (something in steemit had this automated before) and finally someone just gave me $10 of HIVE so I had a sufficient RC to post like a normal user.
Wait a minute. This is HP.... same thing? If only there was a wiki....