As to where they might best be appreciated, that's a quandary right now. I share some of your frustration because images and ideas are all I'm interested In. There is not much traffic on the image centric subsections here, but there isn't any more on those sections in the old DPR either and there's a lot more people there. The camera-centric sections don't seem that interested in images. The share threads are the best bet on here or on old DPR, though here they do get crazy because of the flat format. We have had a few to try out photo stories in the C&C thread here. Mike's venture did OK this week; more members seem to be coming to some terms with the limitations of the format. Some other forums have specific sections for birds that are fairly well utilized but most are used even less than here or DPR.
There is still room for hope here. Building a new forum is a long slow slog filled with bumpy detours and redirections. At least here the admins listen to us and engage in conversation. That is exceedingly rare.