Questions I have about Steem

Still trying to understand the system here at Steem. I love this platform and am enjoying learning the ins and outs. I enjoy sharing and building up a following. I enjoy following others, commenting and upvoting. So theres some questions that I have that keep coming up for me.

1. Why do some people comment but not upvote? Is there some penalty to upvote? and vice verca when I comment intelligently on someone elses post and they don't upvote my comment but only reply. I thought that by upvoting each other we are helping curate content and thats what this community is about.

2. How does Steem Power that is delegated work? I noticed that some of my Steem Power is delegated and I assume everyone else is also in the beggining but I don't understand how this works. Assuming it's a part of the curation recipe. Also noticed others asking for delegation from others.

3. If you don't have a picture you won't get noticed or upvoted. I believed that I always needed a picture to catch the attention but I've noticed that even with a grabbing pic it is still very difficult to get much viewership. (testing not putting a picture)

4. There seems to be an encouragement to promote your content. I am wondering if it is actually worth it to promote or do you end up spending more steem than what you gather from promoted upvotes?

5. What are the best ways to get more upvotes, followers, and comments? I would like to grow my following and my instinct is to keep creating worthwhile and interesting content and the following will come. Hoping to receive some tricks or tips that I might have missed.

Thanks guys!

If you made it this far, consider giving a look at some of my previous posts:

https://steemit.com/photography/@yogalight/the-glow
https://steemit.com/photography/@yogalight/hiking-and-climbing-at-smith-rock
https://steemit.com/photography/@yogalight/flowers-and-stacking-stones
https://steemit.com/photography/@yogalight/after-the-storm
https://steemit.com/photography/@yogalight/my-love-for-a-good-sunset
https://steemit.com/pepe/@yogalight/about-
https://steemit.com/poetry/@yogalight/in-your-desire
https://steemit.com/introduction/@yogalight/intro-to-my-first-post