Great post, minus all the whale talk. I think what people need to realize is that steemit, just like any other media source, is insanely flooded with people that want attention. And just like in any other media source, cute girls get attention for being cute girls, while the rest of us will have to continue to try and post more intriguing content.

I feel you should post what you are passionate about, regardless of whether it caters to larger steam power sources/upvotes or not. Great content will win over bullshit every time when it comes down to it.

Post your own original/interesting content.
Post what you are passionate about.
Don't spam anyone in the delusion that this will get you the attention you want, it will only hurt your case.
Don't try to jump on the boat that, "Oh, this is the type of content that seems to get upvoted, so I will try to post info about that, whether or not I actually have knowledge of it."

That is where all the generic, plagiarized shit is coming from anyway.