For what it's worth, I don't follow advice or take courses for exactly these reasons. That being said, I very much enjoy your work, and would absouletly say you are NOT wasting your time.

As far as curation goes, about 95% of my stuff is curated, and..... So fucking what? It doesn't always, or even mostly, translate into more reads/views.

I haven't explored any courses, but, I'm not liekly to and maybbe I shouldn't be commenting. However, for me, the key to writing is writing well, having something to say that connects with an audience and then, on a site like this, engaging regularly and honestly with others' content which speaks to you. Hmmm, maybe I could design a course on that and charge for it....wait, I just gave it away for free, oh, shit, my bad...oh well, LOL