I do not see the value in spending BEE to create a Hive tribe

Absolutely agree! But it's really not necessary with the work that 3speak and Ecency are doing with their breakaway front end. And I notice from Ecency's latest proposal that they plan to invest more in that project. Even now, you can deploy a community site to Cloudflare Pages in minutes at zero cost. So let me know if you want me to set up a demo (I check https://chat.peakd.com/ most days).

I do see great potential in building a Hive community.

Again, I absolutely agree. Because I believe that Hive communities are the foundation that drives the whole platform forward. But the platform isn't really marketable. Whereas, good communities almost sell themselves.

Personally, I currently lack the required drive and commitment to build my own community. Even taking an admin role in a community is beyond the limitations of my anxiety. So I do what I can, when I can. And Project ePay Traffic is one of my first ports of call on days that I use Hive. Because I thoroughly enjoy your continuous improvement approach.