This is classical "new steemian" approach. They heard from someone about it and It is supposed to bring joy, happiness and richness to EVERYONE for nothing. I mean ... absolutely nothing, you put few photos, couple of lines and you are rich. Well the hard truth is that this can be true, but as you figured it out - it is true if you are stacked with SP on your account =) But you can be stacked only if you are or were in the past producing really quality posts for a long time. Or if you invested heavily in steem. In both cases you had to invest time or money into this platform. And when someone new comes to see the trending page with ... let's be hones quite some shitty content reaching good rewards, they just can't understand it and it's actually really frustrating because they equal some effort with big rewards.
So TL;DR; - keep trying, produce good quality content for an extended period of time, or buy 5-10k SP to get you started =) You will still have to create a name for yourself, write at least medium content but it will be easier.
Nothing else that I could add :)
That's due to the different starting points. In "real-life" some people are born rich. And it seems easy to them. But after years and decades, some of them fall down, some of the poor, honest people go up.
What is the only solution for us, non-royalty? Education, hard work, quality. At the beginning it's hard, but after several years, you can move abroad. After 5-10 years you can start your own company. After 20 - you can become the elite in all the meanings.
And that is what people should do here. Good quality authors should stay together and grow.
Imagine only 1000 good authors, photographers, STEM, craftsman... By the summer, it's 1.000.000 power.
And that could be the avalanche.
If we fall into the grey, shady, low-quality hi-quantity, we are becoming one of those we hate now.