my guess is that only a couple of thousands are actually active.

Thanks to data you don't need to guess.

Screenshot taken from Hive Analytics by @themarkymark (fund it)

October looks grim, because it is has just started but you are correct, there has been a decline in the number of unique authors posting on hive over time.

Others simply moved on to something else as they don't want to bother with posting and manually curating/engaging as the earnings are insignificant for them, which i respect.

Creativity is not necessarily linked with monetary gain. Artists, authors, writers, musicians and others often create (And do create) on platforms where there is no monetary incentive at all. The act of authorship and creativity is a therapy that many engage in, and so many will never find viable as a source of income. Hive is not a solution to those creative's money problems and inability to gain financial independence from their craft.

If Hive becomes a part of the "dead Internet" then there is no value in it. The Internet is now a timeline, as opposed to a library. It is a news tabloid that is discarded the following day. We have a rich library of content on HIVE, but people are mainly concerned with the now, the current, as opposed to timeless content that can be enjoyed again and again.

On the topic of engagement - it isn't hard to do, but what is hard to do is to find content that resonates with your own interests and fits your own sensibilities.

The thing I loathe the most on hive (and in reality as well) is shallow, "Fake" engagement "Nice post dear", "Thanks", "You're Welcome", "have a lovely day"; as opposed to a comment about how the content made the person feel, or how the reader had a similar experience to the writer.

It doesn't all have to be a philosophical treatise - because honestly, who reads those? But human generated content, with compelling stories, not shit about hive is what will make the platform succeed.

People don't go to reddit or tiktok or facebook or whatever they use with the hopes that they'll learn about the new way the databasing system works. They go there to connect and engage and (unfortunately) be fed ads. In order to be engaged, you have to be engaging, and we do not have a high qty of authors on hive who are engaging in a genuine manner.

Content and engagement will bring value. Nothing else matters.