I have similar concerns and have noticed a distinguishable lack of originality and quality among many of the trending posts. I'm wondering what the purpose of the whales are. If they are simply going to upvote the most popular personalities, regardless of whether the content is actually unique and offers great value to the platform, then they are essentially going to guarantee a social club mentality. I hope that this isn't the case and that their attention is more evenly distributed to those who can contribute better content.
It seems like there are tons of posts about Steemit itself that end up trending, which makes me question how the quality and value of a platform can be sustained when the most attention-grabbing content is about the platform itself. As you said - it's basically a circle-jerk if the whales don't wise up and figure that part out. There's no better way to sink your value than to push away those most willing and able to create valuable content. This platform should be less about personalities and more about substance - and not just Steemit-related substance.