Yeah, I can understand that. I use it as gallery collection, my own and for art I like, too, and I think that's a good use of the site too. But in many of the dA forums (like posts and such),this usage seems to be treated like leechers or something. I find that aggravating.

As for the writers, apparently some people use dA to publish fiction too, which I find completely baffling, because to put it mildly, the interface is not very good for that. Or for reading things. But I see fic all the time. I don't get it. Maybe if you have text to go with your illustration I can see why some people would want to have all in one place, but I also see people post there who have only text, and don't do visual art, and I'm like "whyyyy???" and sort of want to shake them to pick good tools to find an audience.