Nobody stops you from uploading stuff and sharing it. But certain communities like for example private trackers have a process to allow you to become an uploader.

As for money, ask yourself, it's piracy, which by definition means that you want to download stuff without paying for them. Why would they pay you instead?

There's a few cases that it worked before but is generally frowned upon, as if holding the files hostage. Now if it's a service that nobody else can do, or files that nobody else has laying around or easy access to buy and share for free, you could try that. Again, nobody stops you, but most people wouldn't see kindly to that. From leechers to other uploaders.

If you wanna make money off of it you become more of a bootlegger than a pirate with a separate set of ethos. It’s going to put a much bigger target on your back both legally and from non legal entities and in the case some shit does go down you’ll have much less support/empathy. This is with the mindset you’re out to make a profit not donations to run servers etc if you get big, even if it’s to just do it full time. And you’re not going to get much support if that’s the case here

The ecosystem dies if everyone is profit seeking, if you want to contribute then id say do it for the love of it...You yourself said how much you have benefitted from the community that gave you so much for free. If you are profiting from it you will be a bigger target for law firms.

As others have said the issue is the nature of the field. Piracy after all is mostly because you don't want to pay. Some pirates will give back, mostly because they are appreciating your service (remux blurays, uploading before release etc. but you can't expect money in this field). Try some sort donation system where donators get badges, faster downloads or other perks.

If you're seeding a torrent you're uploading. If you're seeding any P2P download you're uploading.

You can host a seedbox that'll do the uploading for you, but it'll cost money to rent/host. Same for XDCC bots.

If you want to make money the most lucrative would probably be streaming sites, or alternatively download sites with ads. But when you're the hoster and enabler like that, you make yourself vulnerable. When you pay you will most definitely be traceable by prosecution.

Making significant money off it, if you could even figure out how, is the best way to make yourself a target.