I'll be honest and admit to occasionally uploading photos in order to put a gallery (almost always a recently created one) onto the recent galleries page. The reason I do this is because once the gallery is created, it has maybe half an hour or so on the first few pages and then disappears for all eternity taking with it the liklehood of getting comments & views.
The recent galleries page is by far the best way of bringing people to my galleries, I don't have a relationship outside or on pbase with other members aside from a few favourites who I look at and a few regulars who comment on mine. The forum is practically worthless in this regard in my experience. Therefore I have half an hour where people may (but more likely) may not see the gallery. Obviously most people will not be interested or compelled to comment and that's fine, some of my galleries do get comments on though and so I want to show people who may have missed them now and again. It's not uncommon for this approach to bring comments, frankly I wouldn't bother if I did. If someone is compelled to comment then surely me bringing it to it's attention is a good thing?
I try carefully not to abuse this in the way I know some are doing with the same gallery over and over again, but like everyone said they are easily ignored. I apologise if I am one of these though I hope not.
Another potential problem that the new system creates is that popular galleries will stay on that list even longer now because fewer galleries are seen, meaning galleries are likely to remain in the popular section for longer where their status is re-enforced by being so accessible compared to new galleries. Is my logic correct??
I have long wished for the ability to categorise photos, I am mostly interested in travel & sport photos, others may be more interested in landscapes, models, animals, pad etc. Having the ability to categorise a gallery upon creation and then filter out the ones you are not interested in (in recent galleries) would I believe help people see the galleries most relevant to them. Is this possible?
I think to a large extent the changes you have made and then subsequent discussion will have served your purpose anyway by drawing attention to and debating what is obviously an important topic for many people. Either that or you've encouraged more people to do it!
Chris