This site at times reminds of the time my kids scraped up two hundred fifty bucks for me to go see Jay Leno perform here for Gilda's Club at Laugh Fest. Most their years as teens needing a ride or a last minute run to rent a movie or video before midnight was always met with not until Leno's monologue is over. (before DVR's) What did I get for two hundred fifty dollars? To watch Leno on a wide screen television for the most part otherwise it entailed watching the side of his head while he told jokes, meanwhile all the rich folks in town who helped sponsor the event got tickets up front and center. He also told a lot of jokes I'd already heard on his late night show. A lot of that goes on here also, people waltz in and are granted huge delegations of power because they are perceived as having a large following that will follow them, to be honest most of those followers don't follow them here, maybe half a dozen, and that's being generous, meanwhile they makes hundreds of dollars posting stuff they've already used on whatever platform they were using before coming here. Most of any new material they use isn't worth the hundreds they are pulling out on them.
The way I feel about it between the above example and some of yours is that one of two things has to happen here for me to sit down and contribute my heart out is more fair compensation like they do others or I can compensate myself enough to make it worth it like so many do. Otherwise to get anywhere you have to cheat your way to the top like so many are doing or create your own fan club of sock puppets to up vote your stuff. The field is to crowded now, one could become a millionaire selling Amway faster then they could make a few thousand dollars on here.