I tell myself that kudos are as valuable as comments and as sincere and people don't always have time to comment or feel comfortable doing so or are on their phones ----- but it doesn't work very well. I think those of us who've been in fandom since before there was AO3 and kudos are never going to be completely at peace with that. (though it is really nice when someone goes through and leaves kudos on a bunch of fics).

I do wonder about why the Silm moved so much to the center.

Not sure, but as I said to Narya, some of the good writers moved on, jumped fandoms, just stopped writing, and Silmfic started moving in to occupy the space that opened up and I don't think it was always comfortable (or welcoming) for the LotR people. Many who had been regular writers started to lurk - I know that for sure because I did a couple of posts about it that drew responses from a lot of people I hadn't seen active in ages. Loved the fandom, just weren't interested in the Silm. Sad.