Same! Although I write more than I read, I still have a crazy amount of gems saved [due to buying VIP every two months]… and I have nothing to spend them on, so every time they’re just accumulating and sitting.
I choose not to spend them on stories [not even community stories] because there’s no story that I like enough to pay gems for, especially not for STW. As for bonus scenes… I can’t stand them. In the past whenever I’d spend gems [no more than 5] on bonus scenes they were boring and felt pointless. Definitely not worth paying to view, most of them felt like they’re just thrown in there as a reason to add a gem choice.
At the moment, I only collect gems for the sake of profile outfits [and like you said]: pop up shops, but we haven’t had a pop up shop for ages.