What I don't get about your rant...and I swear I am not attacking you...is that if you've seen this pattern in your stats for several weeks why you have continued to submit to the places.
I don't do very many free sites, so I can't speak alot to LL's. But with galleries, I watch my stats pretty close, and if I'm not getting listed, then I cut that place out of my submit list.
I actually have a very small submit list, compared to many people. That's because I hand submit, and it bores me to tears. So I submit to the places that make it worth my while. I'm not into sitting into this chair, fucking my neck and shoulders up worse, spending my time subbing to places that aren't listing me, don't have traffic that meets my needs, etc.
In short, I hope you feel better for ranting.
And then I hope you do what you can control to make things better for you.