The Steemwhales know this. They know this because they are smarter than you, which is why they are Steemwhales and you are not.
@dan is a whale because he is the creator of Steem software. He's a great programmer and a blockchain architect, but I don't think he's a social media growth guru.
If you look at other whales, many of them are just miners (mining doesn't make one a social media guru, FYI), or just bought Steem with BitShares.
So I think your post is an unnecessary rationalization.
Things are probably much simpler in reality: Steemwhales upvote pretty much the same stuff normal people would have upvoted (because they are people, not marine mammals), so it works more-or-less well.
Dan is smarter than me. Much, much smarter. There is no universe in which I could create things like Bitshares or Steemit. Not going to happen. The miners are also much smarter than me. Set up a miner? Yeah, also not going to happen. So they are all rich and I'm not because they are smarter than me. I'm can cope because I'm probably better looking. If I squint.
If you read Dan's work on social justice and non-violence you might be surprised at just how astute he is when it comes to how society ticks. I think the entire architecture of Steemit is absolute social media genius.
Now all that said, the majority of whales are dudes that are computer programmers that just made a shitload of money and are now Gods of the newest and hottest social media platform and everyone wants to be their best friend. So you're right, so very, very right.
holly shit, so true :O
I know, right?