The vast, vast majority of authors earn nothing .. zilch .. zippo .. nadia
This is untrue. When the payout feed worked I use to watch it. A good percentage earn literally 0.00 but it isn't a vast, vast majority, it is more like 70-80%. A very high portion of that is junk that deserves no more.
There are decent posts that go though to payout with >0 but <1.00 of reward by earning only weaker votes, but not a huge number of actually decent posts that get zilch.