quietly grinding

Just played a couple thousand since last post. The tables are full of players who either see 50% of flops and then super aggress at you - the bullies - or call you down with bottom pair - the calling stations. Been wondering whether the low pocket pairs are worth playing against these types of players. I've often read - in books and forums - that they do the best against tight ranges since wide ranges rarely hit hands that are willing to stack off. Now against a complete idiot who is regularly bluffing all - in post flop and not balancing that range with good hands it may be worth it. But I'm not sure many of these players are quite that loose so have started letting 22-77 go and playing the "block" hands harder - the broadway cards. Committing with top pair good kicker etc. There's obv even less point playing suited connectors against these players as there are less implied odds again. It's funny as I end up playing about 15% of hands, really really nitty. But I suppose providing I play them hard it's obv going to be super profitable. When I sit at a table with tighter players I can then add the range balancing semibluff hands. I suppose the critical thing here is that these players do not adjust and realise that we are never bluffing. Hence we have less steal equity but more showdown equity. So maybe losing money to the redline against these players is not that bad? A sort of loss leader.
Anyway, the last hand I played this morning I wasn't paying attention and almost suffered from a bad mistake. I'd flopped middle set to a loose player who had min 3-bet preflop. The board had an ace in it so I let the villain c-bet and just flatted. Villain then checked and I bet the turn which had paired the board with a deuce. Villain called so it began to look like he had an ace. The river came another ace, which obv destroyed my hand - but without noticing that the board was double paired I reraised his bet all - in. The bloke timed out and I was saved. I can only assume that he had a big pair and didn't put me on an ace, or a deuce. Wow, if he'd insta called with a fullhouse and I'd realised my mistake I think I'd have puked up.