Probably that feature lasted less than a years ago. I registered on the Steem blockchain on 2017.05.17, but I have not even heard about that feature.

My "good guess" would be "to make this thing business based".

Maybe, or it was just pathetic to see a trending post with less than 10 views because some few accounts with stake get to decide which posts to take to trending sort of thing. It's a shame to see a post trending with only few views and lack of commenting but that's what the norm was and still a persisting norm today.

Yes. The kind, who nowadays post random content. What I like (or what comes in my mind) at the moment. I have tried to post specific content in the past, but that did not went well. Nowadays not much people are interested in amateur radio. That is one of my hobbies.

Don't misunderstand me if I sound indifferent but I get where you're coming from. I had that same mindset on pursing a type of content and it wasn't paying off, then I just said fuck it I'll go with posting the hell I want which happens to be the same line of content I got and with some effort to consume other people's content and get involved with what goes on the blockchain, I gained some following and friends.

I don't think my content is all that. I just happen to be lucky in building relationships and etc. Just made me realize that content isn't the only driver for votes and it's mostly just getting interested on what's out there. Now I just spend less time creating and more time interacting. Get interested in people and they may get interested in you too. That's the basic currency of this platform, attention and content becomes secondary. To me it works that way.