Too bad that so many of those more invested in the platform are "greedy, eager to grab author rewards".

Unfortunately that's true, but they are harming themselves the most. HF21 is a step forward as it's much less effective now to be such a greedy bastard.

Why would a new content creator bother at all with joining here

Because with all that flaws and issues we are facing, it's still something vs nothing, compared to Facebook etc.

By the way, it would feel much nicer if the delegation was not dropping at exactly the rate of you getting SP.

I can also agree here. That's ridiculous and I was pointing that out to Steemit.
Plus - lack of gamification. Gamification is IMHO the key. Too bad that I'm far away with my skills from frontend related subjects. I'm still hoping that others can deal with that.

upvotes from a bot I didn't ask for

Smart bots that are fighting for curation rewards might chose to upvote content that "looks" promising in terms of getting more votes.