It used to have a lot more weight. As steemit has grown, it likely has gotten less profitable to post there, but we as a community typically like to upvote newbies so they can gain the concept of how this whole thing works. The problem is that you get a couple of people who either unknowingly do it or do it on purpose trying to "trick" those who vote. The purpose of your vote is to tell the community that a post you see is worth seeing/reading. That's how I choose to place my votes. If I don't think your reply is worthy of others reading it, I won't upvote you. If I think your post has value for others, I'll upvote it. I hate it when people repost something someone else posted (plagiarism) without giving credit to the person who posted the article in the first place. There should be original though there run rampant...Welcome to the community!