I am a disappearer who is finding his way back (Slowly). All of the above applied to me. I got tired of chasing the bigger accounts and the big votes. I was sick of the bidbot game, and ultimately, a promotion at work gave me a lot less time to spend writing my own content, let alone curating. So I left, I would check in every now and then, but it seemed like the same people saying the same things every time I checked in.

Coming back and learning about communities is a big help to me. I subscribed to a bunch of communities last night and am finding a lot more interesting content than I did wading through the Trending or Recent pages of the old format.

I don't know how much this comment has to do with the OP but you asked some questions I could give an opinion on, so there you go. hehe