You hit the nail on the head.

For many I feel they are trained and conditioned to view likes as the currency of the algorithm just like the follow to follower ratio. I think many are bringing the baggage from legacy social media on here where it doesn't apply. The user is the algo and not the service this time around. We curate our own experience like you said.

Someone who is just starting out has an equal chance of being seen and heard just as the guy with 10000+ followers since the algo doesn't exist on Nostr. One could argue the guy with more followers has more reach, but I doubt that at least on here, as I will get people liking things even though they aren't followers. So everything you learned about social media marketing goes out the window on here, imo.

In all honesty, now that I think about a reply to a note is more valuable than either a like or a zap. Why you ask? Because it takes time to write a meaningful reply and time is the most valuable currency of them all even moreso than #Bitcoin as every second that goes by you're closer to death and you can't get time back.