The way I look at is this. If I'm going to go out and take some photos and publish them somewhere in any case, then why wouldn't I do it on the platform that pays anything at all for posting them. And sometimes when I post something better, the post is noticed by a curation project run by people with whom I have no personal connection whatsoever and the curators give me a big upvote.

If I hated to put together photography posts, I certainly wouldn't do it for $1.5. But since I enjoy it, I will happily take the coins.