You're not getting shafted. You are on a site that gives you rewards for the value you can create. It takes time to get attention, but there are many projects like Hive account@curie working on that. The only investment a minnow needs to make is time creating and engaging, which is completely optional, of course.

You can invest to get to a tier that will provide curation rewards right now, but it's very important to remember that if Steem is significantly undervalued, then minnow accounts today will be able to generate better rewards in the future, since the daily Steem rewards would be worth more in USD, making your vote worth more in SBD.

I'd also emphasize that this is an experiment with no real promises that has only been partially unveiled since it is still an early-evolving organism essentially. I'd wait a year or two before writing it off, while also using this as a fun platform to create and engage with people if you don't want to invest in order to generate significant curation rewards.