I think all that has been massively blown out of proportion..

I re-joined STEEM a few weeks before the hardfork, I signed up in January, hated it and left, came back to play Splinterland with Tron, but then I slowly I started posting more and networking here and I am still a very small account but I have no complaints over my earnings. I think my hard patience comes from the fact that I got into crypto and grew my collection by using faucets daily - still do, and I know how every penny of a penny adds up in time. I'm not here to get rich quick, I am here to be a writer, share my art and hopefully grow a following who appreciate my work. So far I've garnered a few good fans, and every day I see growth in one way or another.

I still vote on what I want to vote on, votes are worth less than what they used to be worth on content that's earned less than 20 STEEM, but honestly since I started being active again right before the changes, I'm still collecting and building my SP and still hold less than 1000 SP, heck less than 100 natural SP.. so my vote is worth what it's worth - I don't have a higher value to compare it to since with my growth comes an increase in my vote value each time I put SP away.

Don't worry about what's popular, what's important is supporting the creators you like. If they create quality content (quality is not as subjective as popular - someone who doesn't proof read and do a simple spell check before publishing, doesn't attribute sources or doesn't put care into what they produce, is not considered quality no matter how you slice it. . Standard quality is pretty uniform and with quality work and engagement comes a following and when those boxes are checked, the earnings will come.