I learned very quickly when I joined DA, that if I wanted to be liked and gain any respect as an "artist" I'd go further by finding other artists I liked and providing positive comments about what I liked about their work, with the occasional comment about what seemed off to me (providing a little negative and positive feedback shows you are taking the whole thing seriously rather than simply bashing to bash), rather than going bashing on every artist that was more popular than I felt I deserved to be. I had several friends who took that latter approach, and they never got anywhere. I can't count the times I heard "My art is way better than so-and-so, but he's got 1000 times more watchers, how unfair!" If you check most of the artists who have lots of fans, first go look at who they have faved, and you'll find the base for the majority of their fans.

I've enjoyed/faved a wide variety of strange things simply because I really loved the linework, or the flow of colors, even when the focus of the art wasn't something I got.

You build nothing by tearing down, only by building.