Well...
I personally think and believe that anyone can come up with great ideas and you should listen to everyone, no matter the size of their wallets. Just look at the asapers project for instance, that should be enough evidence to prove my beliefs.
However, I also feel that people generally speaking ignores the little guys. The whales especially, but also other Steemians with pretty large wallets are the ones people usually listens too.
Reputation mattered a lot in the past, but nowadays it's the wallets. It's the amount of Steem Power that does the trick.
It's not even that hard to understand because SP equals money and it usually equals highly rewarded articles too. Well-rewarded articles equals recognition, and recognition equals more money in the long haul.
So yeah, I'd say that the wallet size matters, but it shouldn't matter at all.
Maybe that's the main point to draw out of this... at least for me.. if it matter to some peeps, then, they should reconsider as to WHY it matters so much.
I bet that there are a bunch of whales and dolphins out there who believe they are better than other, smaller people. And honestly speaking, the system is created that way in many aspects too.
They can nuke someones account and take away the rewards. They can hurt the reputation etc. These things would or could eventually make people believe that they are worth less than others. I say worth less and not worthless, because truth to be told; I've felt it too.
I'm not an expert in this whole cryptocurrency-thing and I'm definitely not an expert in terms of blockchains...And if you take a look at many of the authors who's articles are well-rewarded, (either by genuine support or paid-votes), many of them ignores their audience completely, while others reply to the users who have high reputation or large accounts.
Many of them ignores the smaller fish... And that reflects the overall experience on Steemit. Which ultimately makes the smaller fish feel worth less than others.