You don't need to be a whale to abuse the system. Actually, it is easier for smaller accounts to abuse the system, because they go under the radar and/or tolerated.
All you have to do is to post, comment, and self vote 10 times a day and you'll see returns to your capital that no other legal investment would provide, only for a limited time of course.
That is until the whole currency and the platform crashes. I disapprove of this type of behavior, but the system allows it. It's a %65 Million USD per year problem, if you do the math. All of that cash comes from the Steem/Steem Power holders that don't abuse the system.