I get what you mean about personal, and the immediacy of feedback on LJ certainly works for me both as a reader and as an author. *G*

But the snits and the flocking (which I know stems at least in part from some of the LJ kerfuffles that were taking down communities) are part of the reason that I generally find I prefer other fora for reading.

You may have a point though about quality. LJ links the story more directly to the author. I may read (and write) more unbetaed stuff, but I think authors may give their stories more polishing where they're more closely related rather than the obscurity of a website.