You know what, you're right. It really is a social network, but it has a reward system incentive for creating relationships with high power individuals, which must make those individuals rather skeptical when approached!
I just try to be authentic and honest, maybe that will be enough.
I'm quite proud of the fact that I have yet to solicit an upvote from any high powered individuals. I'm hoping my content and the reputation I build here by helping others and connecting will eventually be rewarded accordingly. Time will tell and so far, I'm pretty dang happy with the quality of the conversations.