I would like to work my way into becoming a node in the future that can be a distributor most of the time and flag when required but, there needs to be enough people similar to both offer support and protection.

I am patiently waiting for that day .
You can't measure what you do in a monetary value . Do you deserve it ? yea you do . Take a good look around and see some of the people you have touched . look at what they are doing . If you can get a return of 2 out of 10 of the ripples you created your doing good . I have no doubt that the day will come when the weeds will be uprooted .
If this was a shit post it would be in "Trending"
The smaller accounts with no value yet are growing and growing .
One supported bot could have made a huge impact . but the big boys wanted the status quo