It's to encourage the continual production of new content. Otherwise, right now we'd be complaining that the whales can post once and make money for the rest of their lives while the rest of us still aren't making anything.
7 days is fine. What we need are better search categories that allow viewers to find content that is not always at the top. Sort by Word Count, Image-Heavy or Sort by Reputation - Ascending Order; any of those would help.
Either way, it Is what it is. Learn the system as is and work with it, we shall still succeed.