Sadly, Hive does not have a very large user base. Even worse, since the payout is based on HIVE POWER, one's success here depends on one's ability to please curators, while not provoking downvoters.
That means it is a hostile place for independently minded content creators.
I think that, to really understand the community, one needs to flip their thinking around and see the platform from the perspective of the curator. People buy HIVE because they want to influence things.
Content creators who fail to bend to the influence are unlikely to receive any HIVE. Fortunately, there are curators with different motives on the platform; so content creators have some flexibility. Still is it better for an author to bend to the curators on HIVE than to try and play curators off each other.