The number is the reputation number. Also another thing that is weird about the STEEM blockchain is that for a large in part the people with the power are complete ghost. So it is hard to conceive that for a content platform the most successful people are these ghost figures who never show their face, we never hear their voice, they would never make a video even with a mask on, and we likely won't even see any pictures.
That just seems weird to people in a lot of ways and then the people who are doing all this varied forms of content like video, writing, photography aren't likely to have never the success level of a circle jerker paraphrasing CoinDesk and CoinTelegraph articles.
To people there doesn't seem to be a plausible route to success because the ninja miner / circle jerkers were so far ahead from the beginning. And then they were able to pull away even more.
In a lot of ways I see STEEM as the most amazing thing that is always almost there. Like a testnet of what not to do in the future in a lot of ways.