I've been on there roughly a year and a half and my experience matches yours. I haven't paid a cent, yet I've gotten to one of the highest user ranks. I don't have a seed box or any automation tools. Between grabbing stuff during the several free leech periods throughout the year and just keeping torrents available, I'm doing really well there. I don't know what that other guy is talking about with his pay to leech shenanigans, unless he's just mad that they ask for donations like every other tracker I've seen.