These are some really fantastic points. The idea of carving out a following and dare I say... doing research 🙀 about what kind of content to create, how to formulate your titles, making a good cover, etc. are lost on so many Steemians.
People think that blogging on Steem is somehow different to blogging on other platforms. Fundamentally, all the main aspects are the same. We've just got some extra benefits piled on top and we have a more tight-knit userbase.
The strategies of putting yourself out there and researching what the audience wants are still key components to the overall "game" of content creation and "influencership" (is that a word?).
Tribes are definitely a major benefit to the mission of encouraging more great content on Steem. It's way easier to sort through content now that we have tribes and I can also support and read content that I actually like (which is why I started SteemLeo for investing content) rather than sift through the great sea of irrelevance that is the Steemit new page.