You're exactly right. At first it's quite easy to get disappointed and even angry by some things you see here. For example there are users who will post multiple articles of ''low quality'' every day and will get hundreds of Upvotes. But what's important to understand is that if they are not offering quality then they are offering something else to the platform. If they offer nothing then the community will eventually punish them as you said very correctly.

It's also important to understand what Steemit needs, decide what you can offer and finally invest in that. The better you understand what people need and the more effort you put in giving them what they need, the better the outcome.