Yes, I noticed some good comments on the post.

I think this revelation has got me very curious now. I may go and look at my recent posts and see if there are any that have had views from outside of Steemit..

EDIT: I had a look and I noticed three pizzagate posts that had 500-800 views in contrast to only a 100 or so votes. There was also a recent satirical post about a Trump impeachment that had 50 or so more views than upvotes in spite of a voting trail picking that one up.

I think you are bang on the mark about trending topics gaining attention for Steemit. I am going to make more of an effort to make posts relating to current trends, as well as word my titles in a manner that matches what people will be typing into the search bar on google.

If it helps Steemit, then it helps us all.