I think it would make a bigger impact too. Your photography is clearly amazing - that shouldn't need to be said but having known many artists and photographers I have come to realise that they often don't realise how good they are and can also get disheartened if it looks like people aren't appreciating their work.

Sometime making a splash is as much about psychology and presentation as actual content. Even now with only a few thousand active users on Steemit it can take time to find the best content. The more volume of content there is the harder it gets, so why spread your work out and make it harder?

Also I think it helps as Craig says to envisage each Steem as worth a dollar in itself.

It is not guaranteed but in July there was a time when it was over $4. I think that was partly due to low liquidity and the novelty factor creating massive market speculation (not utility or users).

I think it is entirely possible to get there again if we all work on it together. I also think it is maybe a bit early for proper crowd funding for the same reason.