I feel like this problem needs several different approaches to really tackle it. Firstly we need to address the conditions here:

1. Steem is a game system where users compete for attention and rewards by bringing content and adding value to the platform.

2. Whales will tend to upvote whatever they think will increase the value and distribution of Steem. However anybody invested can be a whale including those who use bots.

The issues:

1. People producing average content getting lots of upvotes from newbs, or are using bots to upvote their crappy content.
2. Quality content creators potentially leaving the community.

My take:
Right now, most first timers here like me simply vote on whatever is trendy or looks interesting. My suggestion is that we actively down-vote or flag rubbish content, then we'll be able to better police the content produced. Over time, trolls will eventually leave. Sadly, for now this is the only thing we can really do.

If you are a content creator or looking at producing stuff and sharing it here, I don't really know what can be done. I haven't got much to say other than the usual: keep writing.
Keep writing till you have enough steempower to upvote your own stuff otherwise there's not much else you can do.

One of my biggest suggestions would be to have moderators. Now I know this may come with a lot of questions and suspicion, but consider that most forms of internet communities that have lasted and sustained themselves over time, e.g. irc servers, reddit subs, old school forums, telegram group chats, require some form of 'moderators' to keep the community content 'curated' and on topic. I imagine that once we reach that point, trolling, low quality posts, rants and spam will eventually go away or become much less of a problem.

Obviously there will need to be some limits as to their power, and I'm not sure how exactly this should be implemented or how people will be chosen in the first place, but I do believe there needs to be some serious consideration about this.

Devs also probably need a good look at some of the stats regarding the community as a whole before jumping the gun at changing anything though.

My hope really is that eventually the points or rewards will distribute more evenly as the community matures and more topics become apart of the 'mainstream' to the steem audience/community as a whole.