It can be harder for posts like that to get bumped up on the trending page and that is similar to how some videos on YouTube can be not recommended or not on trending. Same thing on Facebook and Twitter for example.
It can be harder for something to go viral if it can't be found on trending or whatever else there may be for spreading whatever that might be more popular for more people to see and share. I guess a post can be shared, reblogged, resteemed, and then more people may see it because of that.
I like what you're saying regarding growing under the radar and part of why that is vital is that websites can be expensive as it expands meaning the witnesses have to buy more computers or I mean servers and who knows what else. I remember trying to build a social network myself some years ago and it was a lot of work and I ended up giving up. I wanted something similar to what we have now with Steemit.... I mean Hive Blog.