nice post, I totally agree with you
I actually never read webcomic before I installed webtoon on my large screen android phone and that is where I mostly read all the webcomic I have time to read. It's easy to do while standing around waiting for food or eating lunch etc since I always have my phone with me
I found reading in front of a pc very uncomfortable and I got really into webcomic after reading noblesse on webtoon, and few months later I found out about tapastic
I personally think mobile/tablet is the future of the webcomic consumption, thats why I love the scroll format
from the android app point of view, I found its actually easier to find things I wanna read on webtoon than tapastic
I agree that some webtoon paid artist work is pretty good and more professional quality than the random stuff thats on their free upload challenge league, and even alot of free stuff here (no offense intended, just an honest opinion from a perspective of a reader)
as a picky reader, and not much time on my hands with the amount of choices available out there, I will read the pro quality comic and will skip the amateur looking one, and I'm sure alot of people out there do the same
I think their 30k competition is great, japanese manga magazine have competition with money as a prize all the time, although the highest prize is never that high
it is alot of work to create a webcomic, and I believe it is the dream for alot of artist out there to do this as a living to earn liveable steady income instead of busting your butt off on the side for very little to nothing liveable income in return. Winning that 30k definitely will help to decide if someone want to do webcomic full time.
as far as toxic community, I never read any comments on there, ever
I just go there from my phone to read what I wanna read and move on with my life