I agree with you on the 2nd part...success here takes work, as it should most anywhere. However, I disagree on your first point in that I see complete shit content posts & picture posts get upvoted by whales & bots. I think STEEM was created with the concept of rewarding valuable content & curation, but instead seems to be a game of getting bots & whales to follow and auto-upvote you. I think things would be a little better if bots & auto-voting weren't allowed. The worthy content should rise to the top entirely by the community, and not influenced by programs & algorithms.
RE: 3 Minnows That Rocked Steemit From Scratch & Making the Pareto Distribution Work For You