Uh, I think the reason there are (or were) a lot of good images there was because of how small the selection was.
Like for instance, Pixiv was then known for having mostly superior quality artwork to deviantART, but that was because it used to had a mostly Japan-only userbase and there weren't a lot of people there to show some spoilage like back on deviantART (and it should also be noted that Pixiv allows pornography and their policies appear permissive on its content, while you'll get strikes, even banned on dA if you posted any pornographic images, or thanks to loopholes, hard porn).