If you are active on Hive daily and create good content, leasing extra HP especially if you can do it at a price that is somewhat favorable (I pay 15 Hive each week for 10k extra HP), it pays itself back and some more. You will earn Curation Rewards at 7%-8% and you should be more visible and get more upvotes.

In the end, what Hive comes down to is that either you are on the radar of the curation teams or you make specific content that is part of challenges that have hive power behind them, or you are stuck in an 'upvote4upvote' dynamic.

For that last one, you simply need Hive Power as you won't get noticed without and many (including myself) see that as a quick judgment of commitment. If I see joined in 2022 and only 110 HP it's an instant 'red flag' so to say. In the end, everyone cares about their bag of Hive and rather upvotes users that actively show signs of helping the price stay up. It is one of the big flaws of Hive.

Imo the best way to grow on hive (aside from sucking up to the curators and bending your content toward that) is to lease HP, be social which helps to get some comment updates and re-invest the HBD you earn to lease extra Hive Power and let that ramp up over time.

Good Luck!