I think one of the biggest problems facing steemit is that a lot of the whales and dolphins self-vote and stay within their own groups and communities on steemit and only vote for themselves or their friends. and vote on each others' postings making them the only ones doing well on the platform, making it hard for a minnow to grow. And when they do vote on someone who isn't themselves or another whale, they vote for them at 1% or something rediculous like that.
Now don't get me wrong, Steemit is awesome, and yes, you should do it and not worry about the whole money thing, but I think if you aren't growing and your posts aren't making anything but pennies at a time, then your posts will be less visible to your audience. Ther smaller you are, the less visibility your posts have, which isn't good if you are trying to spread a message or are trying to help someone. Whatever the case may be, visibility and exposure (same thing) on steemit means everything.
Keep in mind earnings are a plus, but they are what help you grow bigger on steemit and gain more traction and visibility. And it seems that most of the whales and dolphins self-vote to the point where it is getting ridiculous. If you want steemit to be a better place, you have to spread out the money so people can grow more. Most whale/dolphins if they don't vote for themselves, they mostly vote for other whales/dolphins. So not only are they being extremely selfish, but they are making it to the point to where they are hoarding the steemit rewards pool and are robbing people who spend hours and hours making good and original content who deserve to be making more than they do, but are making pennies at a time.
I would see someone with a really long and thought out post that was a really good, but they didn't make what they deserve from it with the time they put into it. And the sad part is not only they are only making pennies, but they are just getting a bunch of spammers spamming them. Which makes things a whole lot more annoying. And yes, spammers are a growing problem on steemit, but as of now we can't do much about it.
What people vote on is very questionable, especially the whales and dolphins. Not only do they vote for themselves and their homies, but they vote on stuff that took little to no effort, while there are people whoa re writing their hearts out making great content and are trying to convey a message, you have someone voting on a post about a picture or meme with few to none words. Which to be honest makes me kind of mad because people genuinely put in effort on this platform, but doesn't get recognized.