On the "poor quality comments" part - I actually did some analysis on this not too long ago. Around 60% of comments on the week I sampled were not unique - they were, as you suggested "great post", "thanks" , "you're welcome" or variations of that, or people just calling various bots for hive engine tokens (which were the majority of comments on chain).
I have recently gotten involved with topcomment, and they are doing a great job at incentivising high quality comments.
I too, put a lot of effort into my posts, be it my photography, analysis, writing, or the insane ramblings that I sometimes like to write by going completely off topic :D
And yes, an autovoter is just a tool, but I really, really want hive to be a place where people do make connections, do have discussions, and grow together.
I feel as though you don't get that with an autovoter, as I said in my prior comment.