I thought the same thing before studying the steemit business model. In a nut shell these 'whales' have a lot of pull so they more attention they get on the front page the more money they make. They are exploiting the system because there ultimate goal is the dollar. Others like @haejin are trying to make money using quality content. When Haejin takes dollar/points away from steemit the whales lose. Very interesting times we now live in.