Ya it surely takes away some of the fun of it. I have over 1100 posts almost and I have not had one post bring in over $20 - most are only a few dollars at most. So I am pretty sure Steemit is very cliquish. Like I have said in other posts, its not really about the content and its about the upvotes and who can pay who off. There are some people on here that are doing well, but these are usually people who were here from the beginning and who came up with great ways to market themselves or in some cases who are very beautiful and seeing that beauty sells, it is obvious why they are doing good.