Good to see someone is growing and enjoying it here on Hive. I have to admit the biggest fun is over, at least for me and at least for the moment. It might change some day in the future, so I am not leaving either. Talking about comment voting, I always upvote comments with 50%, that should be at least 3-4 cents depending on my voting power. So fortunately those votes won't be lost.
However, I am sure you are aware that there are other places which will reward you for writing and posting. Hive forked from one of them, and there was another fork later too. And some other web projects work in a similar way, so there are some other options to be fair.
Have a good weekend, I hope fall has reached your area already!