I think you have some very good points on both sides of the fence on steemit.
It really is hard to get any traction here on this platform. But then, I think that goes for many of the blogging platforms. People have to find your work before they'll notice you.
I've been on steemit for about a year and a half now. I'm not really sure how to judge success on this platform, I guess it depends on who you ask. Personally, I don't look at it as success or failure here, for me it's just a work in progress. I seldom get any big upvotes on my posts, I just get a steady group of votes. My goal is to just keep on building my account value, bit by bit. Since I'm retired, I have the time to mess around with steemit when I feel like it, so it's not so hard to write a post if I have something to write about. I don't always have something to write about, so I skip a day or 2 here and there. I'm not competing with anyone else on the platform, so I just go at my own pace.
RE: I have mixed feelings about Steemit