I don't want to blame anyone, everyone is free to do anything you like. But consider this: As long as you want steem not to remain just a ponzi scheme, you are not buying into this vote-for-vote thing. Think about sustainability and not quick roi. Look how cheap this thing is because noone is really interested in it's supposed meaning (a social bloggin, vloggin whatever platform, which should reward you by it's original meaning but it won't in this posts suggested way and I think it is failing actually if not something great happens to prevent all this).
Look for the top earning vloggers rewards and compare them to the one hand few clicks they really get (noone is really interested!).
There are really good commitments to this eco system like @curie or @minnowsupportproject for example which is intended to help minnows without just shaping steemit to become more and more ponzi scheme. Go and be part there, join your local communites, fore ex. d-a-ch, join their dicord channels and you will start to do well. And after all that you might just in case consider to produce somehow helpful or interesting content that is worth viewing and not only trending because of @boosters @boomerangs and what else.