I am glad you posted this so I didn't have to create a post about it. God knows I have been commenting on this exact thing for the past 2 weeks or more now. And writing a post about it for me personally isn't what I wanted to spend my time or energy on.

Anyone could look through my comment section and notice several very similar comments I made, including calling out the newcomer TraceMayer's intro post. It wasn't meant to undermine him personally or his value, it was to point out each posts value as each posted is evaluated individually, and how an intro post such as that does not deserve to earn a 5k payout while tons of heart and soul goes into tons of unnoticed posts and content.

I don't know how long it will take, but it really comes down to Steemit HAS to grow in all areas of interest with powerful voters in all of those areas or authors and creators won't stick around if there are not any voters to reward them.

One of the main issues right now is whales have the power, but they also have their own interests, and rarely delve into areas and vote in areas that don't interest them. I know @dantheman has been exploring this topic a little bit from a few posts a few days ago, his idea to delegate voting power has potential to help remedy at least until the platform is big enough to cover itself.