This was a brilliant breakdown with lots of information I was trying to find. Some of it, well you had me nodding so hard it was painful. Still, I have a flickr account, and given the types of photos I enjoy doing (either collages or joiners, and IG is no good for that, nvm how it tends towards simplistic collages... not that that's bad, but it's not my style) I'm going to stick it out there.

At the end of the day, I'm of the mind that IG and other social sites aren't for me. Too old? Maybe. But mainly it's that it's hard to get good engagement. Like you said, with so many people hustling (liking or following merely to get you to do the same, rather than actually engaging), it's hard to get real conversations or engagements going. Actually, it's the same on sites like Flickr too, tbf.

Question now is if I should consider Smugmug for that reason? We'll see. Either way, look forward to more from you.